I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


} 


4 


GVSTAWS     ADOLPHVS    DG.  REX  SVEC.  GOTH: 
ET  \AND.  MAGNVS  PRINCEPS  F1NLANDL£  DVX  ETC. 


P.J      P.n»..J<Jf 


v-v- 


THE  STORY  OF  TriH  NATIONS 


Denmark  and  Sweden 

with 

Iceland  and  Finland 


By 
Jon  Stefansson,  Ph.D. 

Lecturer  in  Icelandic  at  King's  College,  London 

With  a  Preface  by 
Viscount  Bryce,  O.M. 


With  33  Illustrations  and  1  Map 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Gbe   fmfcfterbocftet  ©ress 

1917 


Ube  "fknicfcerbocfcei  press,  Hew  EJorft 


PREFACE 

Among  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  it  is  with 
those  of  the  Scandinavian  North  and  with  Holland 
that  we  in  Britain  are  most  nearly  connected  by 
blood,  by  religion,  and  by  similarity  of  ideas  and 
habits.  Yet  most  of  us  in  this  country  have  very 
scant  knowledge  of  the  history  of  Denmark,  Swe- 
den, Norway,  and  Iceland,  although  the  political 
relations  of  both  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  were 
constantly  affected  by  all  these  four  countries  dur- 
ing the  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries,  and 
though  in  quite  recent  times  our  commercial  and 
also  our  intellectual  intercourse  with  them  has 
attained  a  constantly  increasing  importance. 
Accordingly,  the  appearance  of  a  new  sketch  of 
their  history,  brief,  but  perhaps  all  the  more  likely 
to  be  generally  read  because  it  is  brief,  deserves 
a  welcome.  The  motive  which  specially  prompts 
me  to  write  these  few  lines  of  preface  to  the  book  of 
Mr.  Jon  Stefansson,  is  the  fact  that  he  is  an  Ice- 
lander, and  that  I  have  long  known  him  as  a 
scholar  who  has  brought  his  knowledge  of  the  lan- 
guage and  history  of  his  own  isle  to  illustrate  the 
early  history  of  the  British  islands  by  a  study  of 


iv  Preface 

our  place-names,  which  he  has  shown  to  be,  espe- 
cially along  our  coasts,  very  largely  of  Icelandic  or 
Old  Norse  origin.  As  he  is  qualified  by  his  know- 
ledge of  Iceland  to  present  an  outline  of  its  history, 
so  he  has  also  the  advantage,  in  writing  of  the  other 
Scandinavian  countries,  of  being  able  to  treat  their 
annals  with  an  impartiality  which  might  come 
less  naturally  to  a  Dane  or  a  Norwegian  or  a 
Swede.  Iceland  is,  to  be  sure,  a  part  of  the  domin- 
ions of  the  Danish  Crown,  but  on  the  other  hand 
the  people  of  Iceland  are  by  race  an  offshoot  of 
the  people  of  Norway,  so  that  an  Icelander  like 
Mr.  Stefansson  stands  in  his  sympathies  mid- 
way between  Denmark  and  Norway.  Denmark 
had  in  the  more  distant  past  many  a  war  with 
Sweden,  and  Norway  has,  in  more  recent  times, 
had  some  friction  with  Sweden,  but  Iceland 
never  stood  in  any  but  friendly  relations  with 
Sweden. 

It  is  a  distinctive  feature  of  this  little  book  that 
more  space  is  in  it  allotted  to  the  annals  of  Iceland 
than  one  finds  in  other  books  devoted  to  the  North- 
ern countries.  Now  Iceland  is  a  country  of  quite 
exceptional  and  peculiar  interest,  not  only  in  its 
physical  but  also  in  its  historical  aspects.  The  Ice- 
landers are  the  smallest  in  number  of  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  world.  Down  till  our  own  days  the 
island  has  never  had  a  population  exceeding  seventy 
thousand,  yet  it  is  a  Nation,  with  a  language,  a 
national  character,  a  body  of  traditions  that 
are  all  its  own.     Of  all  the  civilized  countries  it  is 


Preface  v 

the  most  wild  and  barren,  nine  tenths  of  it  a  desert 
of  snow  mountains,  glaciers,  and  vast  fields  of 
rugged  lava,  poured  forth  from  its  volcanoes.  Yet 
the  people  of  this  remote  isle,  placed  in  an  inhospi- 
table Arctic  wilderness,  cut  off  from  the  nearest 
parts  of  Europe  by  a  stormy  sea,  is,  and  has  been 
from  the  beginning  of  its  national  life  more  than  a 
thousand  years  ago,  an  intellectually  cultivated 
people  which  has  produced  a  literature  both  in 
prose  and  in  poetry  that  stands  among  the  primi- 
tive literatures  next  after  that  of  ancient  Greece  if 
one  regards  both  its  quantity  and  its  quality.  No- 
where else,  except  in  Greece,  was  so  much  produced 
that  attained,  in  times  of  primitive  simplicity,  so 
high  a  level  of  excellence  both  in  imaginative  power 
and  in  brilliance  of  expression. 

Not  less  remarkable  is  the  early  political  history 
of  the  island.  During  nearly  four  centuries  it  was 
the  only  independent  republic  in  the  world,  and  a 
republic  absolutely  unique  in  what  one  may  call 
its  constitution,  for  the  government  was  nothing 
but  a  system  of  law  courts,  administering  a  most 
elaborate  system  of  laws,  the  enforcement  of  which 
was  for  the  most  part  left  to  those  who  were 
parties  to  the  lawsuits. 

In  our  own  time  Iceland  has  for  the  student  of 
political  institutions  a  new  interest.  After  many 
years  of  a  bloodless  constitutional  struggle  between 
its  people  and  the  Danish  Crown,  Denmark  con- 
ceded to  Iceland  a  local  legislature,  and  an  auto- 
nomy under  that    legislature  which  has    greatly 


vi  Preface 

improved  the  relations  between  the  two  countries 
and  furnished  another  argument  to  those  who 
hold  that  peace  and  progress  are  best  secured  by 
the  application  of  the  principles  of  liberty  and 
self-government.  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that 
the  Russian  Government  should  appreciate  the 
value  of  these  principles  in  its  dealings  with 
Finland. 

As  regards  that  much  larger  part  of  Mr.  Stefans- 
son's  book  which  relates  to  the  Scandinavian 
countries  of  the  mainland,  it  is  enough  to  call 
attention  in  a  very  few  words  to  the  interest  which 
their  most  recent  history  has  for  us,  since  I  cannot 
attempt  to  enter  into  those  more  distant  centuries 
which  are  illustrated  by  the  great  names  of  Norse, 
Danish,  and  Swedish  kings,  from  Olaf  Tryggvason 
of  Norway  and  Cnut  of  Denmark  and  England, 
down  to  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Charles  XII  of 
Sweden.  In  our  time  Denmark  has  become  a 
perfectly  constitutional  State,  after  a  long  dispute 
which  in  the  last  generation  divided  the  Crown 
from  the  people.  She  has  also,  by  the  application 
of  the  principle  of  co-operation  and  by  the  use  of 
scientific  methods,  become  one  of  the  most  prosper- 
ous agricultural  regions  of  Europe.  Sweden's 
industries  also  have  been  immensely  developed, 
while  her  political  life  has  passed,  under  a  reformed 
parliamentary  system,  into  new  and  striking 
phases.  Both  these  countries  have  been  adorned 
by  brilliant  poets  and  novelists,  as  well  as  by 
scientific  investigators  of  the  first  rank. 


Preface  vii 

The  history  of  all  the  Northern  countries  well 
deserves  far  more  attention  from  Englishmen  than 
it  has  hitherto  received. 

Bryce. 

July  17,  1916. 


INTRODUCTION 

It  has  often  been  stated  that  Denmark,  Sweden, 
and  Norway  come  late  into  European  history  and 
are  factors  of  little  importance  for  the  balance  of 
power.  Yet  we  find  that  at  the  dawn  of  their 
history,  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the 
Scandinavian  peoples  exercised  a  deep  and  lasting 
influence  on  Western  and  Eastern  Europe.  They 
helped  to  build  up  the  empires  of  England,  of 
France,  of  Russia.  These  early  Empire-builders 
had  discovered  the  value  of  sea-power  and  used  it 
to  conquer  and  settle  many  shores.  They  imparted 
their  seafaring  and  colonizing  genius  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  stock.  The  Vikings  contributed  virile  and 
adventurous  elements  to  the  composite  stock  of 
the  English.  In  France  they  became  crusaders 
and  builders  of  cathedrals.  They  sent  out  leaders 
of  men,  not  only  on  the  Seine  and  the  Thames, 
but  also  on  the  Dnieper.  They  gave  Russia  her 
name  and  governed  her,  few  though  they  were  in 
number.  They  broke  the  Mongolian  yoke.  Rurik's 
last  descendant  died  as  Tsar  in  1598. 

The  Anglo- Scandinavian  Empire  of  Cnut  the 
Great  was  short-lived,  but  the  Scandinavian  mind 
clung  to  it  with  tenacity.     Harald  Hardrada  of 


x  Denmark  and  Sweden 

Norway,  Saint  Cnut  of  Denmark,  tried  to  revive 
it.  Even  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  Yaldemar  Atterdag  negotiated  with  France 
about  his  claims  to  the  English  Crown  and  planned 
the  conquest  of  England.  It  has  remained  a 
dream  which  can  only  be  realized  if  the  Scandina- 
vian kingdoms  should  enter  a  Federated  British 
Empire  for  their  own  safety  and  security. 

Though  the  smallest  in  extent  of  the  three 
Scandinavian  kingdoms,  Denmark  was  the  most 
powerful  of  them  during  the  early  Middle  Ages. 
At  the  time  of  the  Valdemars  she  held  the  hege- 
mony of  the  North.  She  held  sway  over  the 
"Wends  and  Esthonians  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic. 
But  soon  the  naval  and  commercial  domination 
of  the  northern  seas  by  the  Hanseatic  Cities  ousted 
all  competitors.  The  Baltic  Empire  of  Denmark 
crumbled  easily.  Through  civil  feuds  she  sank 
into  disorder  and  degradation,  and  seemed  to  be 
on  the  verge  of  sharing  the  fate  of  Poland.  Val- 
demar  Atterdag  restored  her  to  her  pristine  state. 
It  was  his  daughter,  Margaret,  who  brought  about 
the  first  union  between  the  three  kingdoms  of 
the  North.  Her  contemporaries  greatly  mar- 
velled at  the  strength  and  wisdom  of  the  woman 
who  accomplished  what  men  had  in  vain  striven 
to  do.  But  it  was  only  a  dynastic  union,  not  a 
union  of  the  three  peoples.  Denmark  continued 
to  be  the  predominating  Power  and  ruled  the 
two  other  countries  in  her  own  interest.  This 
was  contrary  to  the  stipulations  of  the  Kalmar 


Introduction  xi 

Union,  drafted  at  Kalmar,  1397,  by  nobles  repre- 
senting the  three  kingdoms,  according  to  which 
they  were  all  to  be  on  an  equal  footing,  while 
each  of  them  was  to  retain  her  independence  as 
a  sovereign  state.  As  a  symbol  of  this  union  Mar- 
garet's grand-nephew  was  crowned  with  the  triple 
crown  of  the  three  kingdoms  at  Kalmar,  in  1397.  A 
coronation  in  any  of  the  three  capitals  of  Denmark, 
Norway,  or  Sweden  would  have  been  a  breach 
of  their  status  of  equality.  This  was  the  theory, 
but  in  practice  the  union  worked  far  otherwise. 
Margaret,  desirous  of  curbing  the  power  of  the 
nobles,  never  promulgated  the  terms  of  the  Kal- 
mar Union.  Danes  held  office  in  Sweden  and  in 
Norway  contrary  to  the  stipulations  of  the  Union. 
The  national  spirit  of  the  Swedes  rose  against 
the  Danish  yoke.  Norway  lacked  leaders.  The 
flower  of  her  nobles  had  been  killed  off  in  civil 
wars  and  in  blood  feuds.  The  union  between 
Denmark  and  Sweden  gradually  broke  up,  though 
it  lasted  nominally  till  1523.  The  Vasa  dynasty 
ascended  the  Swedish  throne.  They  raised  Sweden 
to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  power  which  has  been 
reached  by  any  of  the  three  sister  nations. 

In  a  series  of  fratricidal  wars  Denmark  and 
Sweden  struggled  for  supremacy  in  the  North. 
Denmark  aimed  at  the  dominion  of  the  adjoining 
seas,  the  Baltic,  the  North  Sea,  the  Polar  Sea. 
She  insisted  that  all  foreign  men-of-war  should 
dip  their  topsail  in  her  seas.  She  emblazoned 
the  three  crowns  in  her  arms  as  a  symbol  of  her 


xii  Denmark  and  Sweden 

supremacy.  She  exacted  customs  duties  not  only 
in  the  Sound  but  also  for  ships  rounding  the  North 
Cape.  This  finally  led  to  the  Swedish  seizure  of 
the  Sound  provinces,  Scania,  Halland,  Blekinge. 
Holland,  which  desired  that  the  Northern  Dar- 
danelles should  not  belong  to  one  Power,  sup- 
ported the  two  rival  Powers  against  each  other. 
In  the  course  of  half  a  century  these  fertile  pro- 
vinces became  thoroughly  denationalized  and 
wholly  Swedish. 

The  aim  of  Swedish  statesmen  was  to  create  a 
Baltic  Empire.  By  holding  the  southern  and 
eastern  coasts  of  the  Baltic,  with  the  outlets  of 
the  great  rivers,  they  held  the  master-keys  to  the 
future  destinies  of  Germany  and  Russia.  When 
Gustavus  Adolphus  defended  religious  freedom 
against  Pope  and  Emperor,  he  proposed  a  Scandi- 
navian alliance  to  Christian  IV.  They  were 
fighting  for  the  same  ideals,  but  distrust  and 
jealousy  won  the  day.  Christian  refused.  But 
ever  since  attempts  have  been  made  from  time  to 
time  to  realize  the  dream  of  a  united  Scandinavia., 
In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century 
Griffenfeld  and  Gyllenstierna,  a  great  Danish 
and  a  great  Swedish  statesman,  both  saw  that  the 
invincible  Swedish  army  and  the  splendid  Danish 
navy,  united,  would  enable  their  countries  to  act 
the  part  of  a  Great  Power  in  Europe.  Unfor- 
tunately, Denmark  in  the  eighteenth  century  was 
secretly  leagued  with  Russia  against  Sweden,  and 
England  systematically  made  use  of  the  hostility 


Introduction  xiii 

of  these  two  Powers  to  Sweden  to  counterpoise 
the  influence  of  France  in  the  Baltic  where  she 
had  important  interests.  Again,  at  the  time  of  the 
North  American  War  of  Independence,  Denmark 
and  Sweden  drew  nearer  to  each  other.  In  1780, 
1794,  and  !8oo  Dano-Swedish  fleets  cruised  in  the 
Baltic  and  in  the  North  Sea,  commanded  in  turns 
by  a  Danish  or  a  Swedish  admiral,  to  protect  and 
convoy  their  joint  commerce.  But  this  comrade- 
ship in  arms,  the  Armed  Neutrality,  came  to  an 
end  in  1801.  The  Danes  had  to  fight  Nelson 
single-handed  in  the  battle  of  Copenhagen.  The 
Swedish  fleet  lay  at  Karlskrona,  ready  to  join 
them,  but  its  commander  disobeyed  the  orders  of 
his  king.  It  was  the  same  admiral  who  surren- 
dered the  impregnable  Sveaborg  to  the  Russians 
in  1809.  It  has  been  held,  though  there  is  no 
proof  of  it,  that  he  accepted  bribes  on  both  occa- 
sions. Bitterness  and  distrust  replaced  mutual 
confidence  between  the  sister  nations.  After  the 
dethronement  of  Gustavus  IV  (1809)  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Denmark  was  a  candidate  for  the  vacant 
throne  of  Sweden,  and  he  might  have  united  the 
two  countries  under  one  sceptre  had  he  been  less 
obstinate  and  narrow-minded.  Bernadotte  thought 
that  the  acquisition  of  Norway  was  of  more  value 
to  Sweden  than  the  loss  of  Finland,  the  tenure  of 
which  would  always  be  unsafe  and  at  the  mercy 
of  Russia,  while  only  one  tenth  of  its  population 
were  Swedes.  He  judged  from  the  map.  The 
two  nations,  inhabiting  the  same  peninsula,  were 


xiv  Denmark  and  Sweden 

joined  together,  1 8 14-1905,  and  during  that  time 
the  changes  that  took  place  were  mainly  in  the 
direction  of  differentiation  from  each  other. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  students  of  the  Scandinavian  Universities 
began  to  hold  joint  meetings  and  draw  together 
in  various  ways.  During  the  Danish  wars  with 
Germany  (1848-50  and  1864)  hundreds  of  Swed- 
ish and  Norwegian  volunteers  joined  the  Danish 
army,  and  it  was  only  with  difficulty  that  Sweden- 
Norway  could  be  held  back  from  joining  in  the 
war.  It  is  now  known  that  Bismarck  had  made 
a  secret  arrangement  with  Russia.  If  Sweden- 
Norway  assisted  Denmark  with  their  armies, 
Russia  was  to  invade  the  northern  parts  of  these 
kingdoms  and  seize  certain  ice-free  ports.  Sweden 
wisely  remained  at  peace  and  in  safety. 

The  three  Scandinavian  nations  have  instituted 
a  common  coinage  and  postage.  Certain  members 
of  their  three  parliaments  hold  inter-parlia- 
mentary meetings  and  conferences  at  stated  inter- 
vals, in  which  they  discuss  how  to  bring  their 
legislation  and  other  matters  into  closer  conform- 
ity. Their  rules  of  neutrality  have  been  made 
identical.  Never  has  their  feeling  of  close  kinship 
and  their  sense  of  the  need  of  standing  by  each 
other  in  time  of  danger  like  one  nation  been 
stronger  than  it  is  at  the  present  time. 

Sweden  is  not  only  the  largest  in  area,  popula- 
tion, and  wealth  of  the  three  kingdoms.  She  is 
also  the  one  who  has  played  a  great  part  on  the 


Introduction  xv 

stage  of  European  history.  No  other  country  in 
the  world  has  had  a  succession  of  hero  kings,  one 
after  the  other,  as  she  has.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
and  Charles  XII  dazzled  their  contemporaries 
even  more  than  or  as  much  as  Napoleon.  Charles 
X,  in  a  reign  lasting  only  six  years,  filled  the  pages 
of  history  with  heroic  deeds.  Charles  IX  and 
Gustavus  Vasa  laid  the  foundations  of  the  great- 
ness of  Sweden  as  the  leading  Protestant  Power  in 
Europe.  Gustavus  III  saved  his  country  from 
the  fate  of  Poland,  and,  almost  single-handed, 
carried  through  a  revolution  without  shedding 
one  drop  of  blood.  Sweden  had  been  governed 
by  parliamentary  majorities,  without  honour  and 
without  patriotism.  The  highest  bidder,  the 
Russian  or  the  French  Ambassador,  could  have 
their  votes,  and  bribery  was  thoroughly  system- 
atized, a  regular  source  of  income.  To  such 
degradation  had  Swedish  nobles  come! 

Sweden  had  tried  successively  various  forms  of 
government.  The  oligarchy  of  the  nobles  broke 
down  through  its  own  inefficiency  and  was  sup- 
planted by  absolutism.  When  Charles  XII,  by 
his  autocratic  obstinacy,  ruined  the  Baltic  Empire 
of  Sweden,  royalty  was  constitutionally  shorn  of 
all  power.  Unfettered  parliamentary  government 
led  to  such  abuses  that  it,  too,  in  its  turn, 
broke  down.  Even  now,  under  the  constitutional 
regime  of  the  Bernadottes,  the  King  of  Sweden 
has  powers,  rooted  in  tradition,  which  have  lapsed 
in  Denmark.     Recently  Gustavus  V  was  able  to 


X\  1 


Denmark  and  Sweden 


dismiss  a  ministry  which  represented  a  parliamen- 
tary majority,  because  they  disagreed  with  him 
on  military  matters,  and  the  subsequent  elections 
proved  that  the  King  had  correctly  gauged  the 
opinion  of  the  Swedish  people.  Swedish  kings 
have  often,  in  the  hour  of  need,  appealed  to  the 
proud  and  free  Swedish  peasantry,  wThose  spirit 
has  never  been  cowed  by  villenage,  as  in  Denmark. 
During  the  last  five  hundred  years  Danish  kings 
have  not  stood  forth  as  the  leaders  of  their  people 
in  the  Swedish  way.  Christian  I  and  Christian 
IV  essayed  it,  but  did  not  succeed.  The  Danish 
nobles  at  every  election  of  a  king  encroached  on  the 
royal  privileges  and  domains.  Though  they  held 
in  fief  the  larger  half  of  Denmark  they  exempted 
themselves  from  taxation.  The  peasants  on  their 
estates  were  treated  like  serfs.  Just  retribution 
came  in  due  time.  After  the  loss  of  the  provinces 
east  of  the  Sound  Frederick  III,  in  1660,  introduced 
an  absolute  autocracy,  the  most  thoroughgoing  and 
logical  that  the  world  has  seen.  The  real  author 
of  the  Lex  Regia  was  a  statesman  of  genius,  Griffen- 
feld.  He  determined  to  carry  out  the  "  L'etat,  c'est 
moi  "  of  Louis  XIV  to  its  utmost  limits  and  conse- 
quences. The  new  autocracy  was  at  first  more 
efficient  than  the  oligarchy,  but  it  killed  and  chilled 
all  independence  and  initiative  and  soon  degene- 
rated. One  of  its  first  victims  was  Griffenfeld 
himself,  who  died  in  prison.  Mediocre  kings, 
some  of  them  alienated  from  their  people  by  a 
German  Court,  ruled  a  meek  and  humble  nation. 


Introduction  xvii 

Even  the  loss  of  Norway  in  1 8 14  did  not  shake 
their  simple  trust  in  the  godlike  wisdom  of  their 
monarch.  The  mad  freaks  and  the  dissolute 
scandals  of  the  insane  Christian  VII  did  not 
affect  his  popularity.     He  reigned  forty- two  years. 

The  liberal  movements  that  spread  like  fire 
through  Europe  in  1848,  also  reached  Denmark. 
Frederick  VII,  at  the  pressing  request  of  his 
people,  gave  up  his  absolute  power,  and  in  1849 
Denmark  was  granted  the  Constitution,  which, 
with  some  alterations,  is  in  force  to-day. 

The  Danish  peasants  had  in  the  course  of  cen- 
turies sunk  down  to  a  lower  status  than  those 
of  Sweden.  Since  the  Peasant  Reforms  in  1788 
their  recovery  has  been  rapid.  At  the  present 
time  they  are  more  prosperous,  more  enlightened, 
more  progressive,  more  ready  to  turn  to  practical 
use  the  latest  discoveries  in  science  than  the  farm- 
ers of  any  other  country.  Their  co-operative 
institutions  are  studied  and  imitated  by  other 
countries.  They  have  set  themselves  to  make 
good  the  loss  of  Danish  territory  in  1864  by  put- 
ting under  cultivation  an  area  of  equal  extent 
within  the  borders  of  the  kingdom. 

Danish  Slesvig  is  being  Prussianized  by  force 
and  violence.  This  wound  is  still  open  and  bleed- 
ing. Nowhere  does  Danish  patriotism  burn  with 
such  a  bright  and  steady  flame  as  among  the 
Danes  in  North  Slesvig.  Separated  from  their 
countrymen  economically,  administratively,  and 
politically,  yet  they  are  tied  to  them  to-day  by 


xviii  Denmark  and  Sweden 

even  stronger  bonds  than  half  a  century  ago; 
they  are,  as  it  were,  a  living  human  wall  that  acts 
as  a  frontier  guard  to  the  motherland.  Their 
prudence  and  self-restraint  are  such  that  every 
measure  of  Germanization  merely  intensifies  their 
national  feeling,  and  thus  has  the  opposite  effect 
of  what  was  intended.  Unconquerable,  they  pa- 
tiently await  the  day  of  deliverance.  Amid 
all  party  strife  in  Denmark  Slesvig  has  been  a 
rallying  point  for  the  best  and  strongest  elements 
of  the  nation.  Since  the  parallel  with  Finland 
and  Sweden  is  often  drawn,  it  should  be  stated 
that  the  dissimilarity  is  greater  than  the  resem- 
blance. 

Finland  is  struggling  to  preserve  historic  rights 
which  gave  her  a  status  as  an  internally  independ- 
ent nation  within  the  Russian  Empire.  Dominated, 
led,  and  civilized  by  Swedes  for  centuries,  she  is 
still  under  their  spell,  but  they  are  a  dwindling 
and  decreasing  minority.  A  thousand  years  of 
common  history  makes  every  Swede  feel  the  Russi- 
fication  of  Finland  as  a  blow  struck  to  denation- 
alize a  branch  of  the  Swedish  race.  Only  second 
to  that  is  the  danger  to  Sweden  caused  by  the 
elimination  of  Finland  as  a  buffer  state.  It  is  to 
ward  off  this  danger  that  the  impregnable  fortress 
of  Boden  has  been  built  in  the  high  North.  Un- 
reasonable or  not,  these  Swedish  fears  exist,  as 
they  did  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean  War.  There 
is  a  regret  that  the  November  Treaty  of  1854, 
by  which  England  and  France  engaged  to  defend 


Introduction  xix 

Swedish  and  Norwegian  territory  against  Russian 
encroachments,  is  no  longer  in  force.  Sweden  has, 
in  the  course  of  centuries,  lost  so  much  territory 
to  Russia  that  she  fears  the  process  may  not  be  at 
an  end  yet,  and  she  cannot  look  on  unmoved  at 
events  happening  in  Finland.  At  the  same  time 
she  is  forming  new  cultural  and  commercial  ties 
with  the  Russian  Empire,  whose  statesmen  have 
more  than  once  urged  that  her  fears  are  groundless. 
Iceland  stands  on  her  historic  rights.  The 
Icelandic  Republic  entered  into  a  personal  union 
with  Norway  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the  mon- 
arch being  the  common  link.  Later,  Denmark 
took  the  place  of  Norway  in  this  union.  Iceland 
is  still  striving  to  get  Denmark  to  acknowledge 
her  historic  rights,  and  to  modify  her  constitu- 
tional relations  accordingly.  At  the  present  time 
it  is  debated  whether  the  Minister  for  Iceland 
should  attend  the  meetings  of  the  Danish  Cabinet 
or  not.  Denmark  is  gradually  coming  to  see  that 
she  can  give  way  without  losing  any  advantage 
or  prestige.  The  intense  national  feeling  of  the 
Icelandic  people  has  behind  it  a  history  which  is 
the  common  heritage  of  all  the  Scandinavian  na- 
tions. As  the  treasure-house  of  the  past  of  the 
Scandinavian  nations,  Iceland  deserves  to  have, 
apart  from  its  historic  rights,  a  unique  and  sepa- 
rate status  of  its  own,  unassailed  by  petty  constitu- 
tional quibbles.  The  essence  of  the  movement 
towards  unity  of  the  Scandinavian  nations  is 
closely  bound  up   with   Iceland,   for  all  Danes, 


xx  Denmark  and  Sweden 

Swedes,  and  Norwegians  are  equally  proud  of 
their  historic  past,  which,  through  the  Icelandic 
Eddas  and  Sagas,  has  been  preserved  for  all  time. 
Even  now  Iceland  is  awaking  from  the  sleep  of 
centuries,  and  advancing,  economically,  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  Denmark  should  be  proud  to  assist 
in  the  renaissance  of  the  little  nation  in  the  North 
Atlantic,  whose  stubborn  spirit  has  survived  the 
oppression  of  man  and  of  nature,  on  the  verge  of 
the  Arctic  Circle.  The  new  University  of  Ice- 
land at  Reykjavik  will  again  lift  the  torch  of  cul- 
ture and  learning  which  burnt  so  brightly  in 
republican  Iceland.  New  Iceland-owned  steamers 
are  crossing  the  Atlantic  for  the  first  time  in  191 5. 
New  energies  are  springing  up  in  many  directions. 
They  have  been  to  some  degree  roused  by  the 
colony  of  Icelanders,  New  Iceland,  founded  under 
the  British  flag  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Winnipeg. 
None  of  the  Scandinavian  nations  have  such 
strong  English  sympathies  as  the  people  of  Ice- 
land, whose  nearest  neighbour  in  Europe  is  Great 
Britain.  It  was  an  Englishman,  William  Morris, 
who  said  that  as  Hellas  is  holy  ground  to  the 
nations  of  the  South,  so  should  Iceland  be  a  Hellas 
to  Northern  Europe. 

A  united,  free,  and  federated  Scandinavia  is  no 
longer  a  dream  of  the  distant  future.  The  world- 
historic  events  through  which  we  are  passing 
have  brought  it  nearer  to  realization.  The  meet- 
ing of  the  three  kings,  so  closely  related  to  each 
other,   proves  that  all  ill-feeling  engendered  by 


Introduction  xxi 

the  separation  of  Sweden  and  Norway  in  1 905  is 
at  an  end.  The  very  selection  of  a  meeting-place, 
Malmo,  was  suggestive  of  the  meeting  at  Kalmar, 
in  1397. 

Sweden,  possessing  a  larger  army  and  a  larger 
navy,  alone,  than  Denmark  and  Norway  added 
together,  would  have  to  bear  the  burden  of  de- 
fence to  a  higher  degree  than  either  of  her  sister 
nations.  The  only  neighbours  whom  the  three 
countries  fear  are  Russia  and  Germany,  and  their 
joint  resistance  to  either  of  these  two  Empires 
would  be  no  insignificant  factor  in  a  European 
war.  Sweden  and  Norway  are  by  nature  well 
adapted  for  defence  against  superior  forces. 

The  literature  and  art  of  Scandinavia  has  influ- 
enced Europe.  Ibsen's  art  has  revolutionized  the 
drama  of  every  country.  The  music  of  Grieg  has 
strengthened  the  national  strain  in  European 
music.  Thorvaldsen  made  an  epoch  in  sculpture. 
In  science  Scandinavia  has  contributed  far  more 
than  her  share.  She  has  sent  out  explorers  who 
have  been  the  only  serious  rivals  of  the  English. 
Norway  has  more  shipping  in  proportion  to  her 
population  than  any  other  country.  Denmark, 
the  size  of  an  English  county,  has  an  East  Asiatic 
steamship  line,  and  controls  the  Great  Northern 
Telegraph  Company's  lines  that  extend  to  the 
uttermost  ends  of  the  Asiatic  Continent.  The 
metallurgy  and  mining  of  Sweden  can  hold  its 
own  with  those  of  any  other  country.  European 
civilization  and  culture  would  be  the  poorer  if  it 


xxii  Denmark  and  Sweden 

were  to  forgo  the  contribution  made  to  it  by  the 
Scandinavian  countries. 

The  influence  of  England  on  the  Scandinavian 
countries  begins  with  the  dawn  of  their  history. 
Christianity  with  civilization  in  her  train  pene- 
trated slowly  from  the  British  Isles  to  the  North. 
Cnut  the  Great  drew  the  two  peoples  nearer  to 
each  other  in  his  Empire. 

Elizabeth,  in  her  correspondence  with  the  kings 
of  Denmark,  brooks  little  interference  with  the 
important  commercial  and  economic  interests  of 
England  in  the  Baltic.  James  I,  Charles  I,  and 
Cromwell  favour  Sweden,  the  great  Protestant 
Power  fighting  on  behalf  of  all  Protestant  nations. 
In  the  tangled  web  of  alliances  of  the  latter  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century  Sweden,  as  a  rule, 
was  found  on  the  side  of  France,  and  Denmark 
among  her  opponents.  Charles  XII,  after  the 
seizure  of  Bremen  and  Verden  by  Hanover,  was 
at  war  with  George  I  as  the  Elector  of  Hanover, 
but  at  peace  with  him  as  King  of  England.  Sir 
John  Norris  cruised  in  the  Baltic  with  the  British 
fleet  as  a  neutral.  Still,  Sir  George  Byng  block- 
aded Gothenburg  in  the  spring  of  171 7,  to  prevent 
a  Jacobite  raid  on  England  by  Charles  XII.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  English  policy  favoured 
Denmark,  as  Sweden  was  for  the  most  part  the 
satellite  of  France.  England  attacked  Denmark 
twice  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  in  1801  and  1807. 
A  seven  years'  war  with  Denmark  came  to  an 
end  in  18 14.     Since  then  economic  interests  have 


Introduction  xxiii 

knit  close  ties  between  England  and  Denmark. 
Denmark  sends  the  whole  of  her  large  exports  of 
agricultural  produce,  over  twenty  million  pounds' 
worth,  to  the  British  market.  Sweden  is  imitat- 
ing the  example  set  by  Denmark  in  an  ever- 
increasing  degree. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction       ......        ix 

PARTI 
DENMARK 


I. — Origins — The  Viking  Age 

II. — Cnut  the  Great  . 

III. — The  Early  Middle  Age 

IV. — The  Age  of  the  Valdemars  (1157- 
1241) 

V.— Civil  Wars  . 

VI. — Valdemar  Atterdag  (1340-75) 


3 

9 

14 

22 
29 

34 


VII. — Queen    Margaret — The   Kalmar 
Union — The    Oldenburg    Dyn- 

nasty 38 

VIII. — Christian  II         ....  47 

IX. — The  Reformation         ...  63 

X. — The  Seven  Years'  War  (1563-70)  69 

XL— Christian  IV  (1588-1648)      .         .  73 

XII. — Absolutism — Griffenfeld    .         .  80 


xxv  i  Contents 


XIII. — Absolutism   in   the   Eighteenth 

Century  ....       88 

XIV.— Christian  VII  and  Struensee        .       99 

XV. — Frederick     VI — Denmark     and 
England — The   Loss    of    Nor- 
way   109 

XVI. — Christian      VIII — Slesvig      and 

Holstein  ....     122 

XVII.— Frederick     VII — the     Constitu- 
tional Monarchy — The  First 
Slesvig  War     .         .         .         .129 

XVIII. — Christian  IX  and  his  Successors 
— The  Loss  of  Slesvig — Con- 
stitutional Struggles      .         .138 

PART  II 
ICELAND 

XIX. — Iceland 153 

PART  III 
SWEDEN 

XX. — Origins — The  Viking  Age  and  the 

Early  Middle  Age    .         .         -171 

S*  XXI. — Union  with  Norway  (1319-71)  and 

with  Denmark  (1 389-1 521)         .     185 

XXII. — Gustavus  Vasa   (1523-60) — The 

Reformation    .         .         .         .197 


Contents 


XXVI 1 


CHAPTER 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 


-Eric  XIV     . 

-The  Reformation — Poland 

-Gustavus  Adolphus 

-Sweden  as  a  Great  Power 

•  Charles  XII 

-Parliamentarism   Free  and  Un 
fettered 


XXIX.— Gustavus  I 
XXX 


Gustavus  IV — The  Loss  of  Fin 
land 

XXXI. — Bernadotte  and  his  Successors — 
The  Union  with  Norway  and 
its  Dissolution 


PAGE 

225 

234 
242 
270 
287 

298 
305 

319 
328 


PARTIV 
FINLAND 

XXXII. — Finland    after    its    Separation 

from  Sweden  (1809-1914)  .     34; 


Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events 
in  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Nor- 
way .....     361 

Index 375 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Gustavus  Adolphus     .  .  .     Frontispiece 

The  Jellinge  Stone    .....         4 

Ornaments,  chiefly  Buckles,  of  the  Viking 
Age 6 

Danish  Coins,  from  the  Reign  of  Cnut  the 
Great,  Minted  at  Lund,  Roskilde, 
Ringstead         .... 


Canute  and  Emma. 

From  a  miniature  reproduced  in  "LiberVitae"  (Birch) 

Chalice  and  Ring  of  Absalon    . 
Queen  Margaret's  Sarcophagus 
Christian  II.        ... 
The  Stockholm  Massacre  . 


12 
12 

26 

42 
48 

58 


The    Kronborg    Tapestry     Mentioned    in 

"Hamlet."  Frederick  II.  and  his  Son         .  70 

Christian  IV 76 

Hesselagergaard  Castle     ....  78 

Caroline  Matilda 102 

xxix 


XXX 


Illustrations 


Struensee   ..... 

The  Constituent  Assembly 

Jon  Sigurdsson    .... 

Gravestone  of  the  English  Patron  Saint 
or  Finland,  Bishop  Henry 

Gustavus  Vasa    .... 

Stockholm  ..... 

From  an  old  print 

Gustavus  Adolphus  Landing  in  Germany 

Seal  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 

Death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  at  Lutzen 

A  Dutch  print 

Grave  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Riddarholm 
Church,  Stockholm  .... 

Axel  Oxenstierna,  Chancellor  of  Sweden   . 

Charles  X  ...... 

Dahlberg    ....... 

March  of  the  Swedish  Army  over  the  Ice    . 

The  Swedes  Storm  Copenhagen,  February 
ii,  1659 

Charles  XII 

By  Wedekind 


PAGE 
IO6 

136 
166 

178 
198 
204 

254 
260 

266 


268 
272 
276 
278 
280 

282 
288 


Illustrations 

xxxi 

PAGE 

Death  Mask  of  Charles  II    . 

.          296 

Gustavus  III 

•          308 

Bernadotte  (Charles  John) 

•          3^ 

Five  Finnish  Leaders 

•          352 

Map 

at  the  end 

PART  I 

DENMARK 


CHAPTER  I 

ORIGINS — THE  VIKING  AGE 

The  earliest  references  to  Denmark  are  found 
in  classical  writers.  The  Cimbrians,  who  were 
beaten  by  Marius  at  Vercelli,  101  B.C.,  have  left 
traces  of  their  name  in  a  district  of  Jutland,  the 
present  Himmerland  (Himmer-,  earlier  Himber-)- 
Ptolemy  in  his  geography,  a.d.  130,  mentions  the 
Cimbrian  peninsula,  and  Pliny  the  Elder,  about 
a.d.  70,  writes  that  he  sailed  round  it.  About  the 
time  of  the  birth  of  Christ  the  citizens  of  Ankyra 
(now  Angora) ,  in  Asia  Minor,  built  a  temple  dedi- 
cated to  the  Emperor  Augustus  and  the  goddess 
Roma.  On  its  marble  wall  the  following  inscrip- 
tion, chosen  by  Augustus  himself,  was  engraven: 
"My  fleet  sailed  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine 
eastward  to  the  country  of  the  Cimbrians  to  which 
no  Roman  had  ever  penetrated  before  that  time 
by  sea  or  by  land  and  the  Cimbrians  and  the 
Charydes  and  the  Semnones  and  other  German 
peoples  in  these  regions  asked  for  my  friendship 
and  that  of  the  Roman  people,  through  legates." 
The  ethnic  name  of  the  Danes  is  first  recorded 
by  the  historian  Prokopius,  a.d.  550,  while  King 

3 


4  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Alfred  the  Great  is  the  first  writer  who  records  the 
name  Denmark  (Denemearc  in  old  English)  in 
the  account  of  the  travels  of  Ottar  and  Wulfstan, 
which  he  inserted  in  his  translation  of  Orosius, 
a.d.  890. 

Denmark  was  the  first  Scandinavian  country  to 
adopt  Christianity.  Willibrord,  the  English  mis- 
sionary who  converted  the  Frisians,  preached  in 
Denmark  shortly  after  700  A.D.,  and  took  thirty 
Danish  boys  with  him  when  he  left.  When 
Charlemagne  Christianized  the  Saxons  by  sword 
and  fire,  their  leader,  Widukind,  sought  refuge  in 
Denmark.  Thus  Christianity  approached  Den- 
mark as  the  enemy  of  its  freedom  and  independence, 
and  King  Godfred  set  out  with  two  hundred  ships 
to  attack  Charlemagne  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  but 
he  was  assassinated  while  raiding  the  coast. 
Heming,  his  successor,  made  peace  with  Charle- 
magne in  811.  The  river  Eider  was  to  divide 
Denmark  and  the  Empire.  In  826  the  Danish 
king,  Harald,  came  sailing  up  the  Rhine  to  visit 
the  Emperor  Louis  Debonnaire,  and  was  baptized 
at  Ingelheim,  near  Mainz,  with  his  queen  and  his 
son  and  a  large  retinue.  He  apparently  changed 
his  faith  in  order  to  seat  himself  more  safely  on 
the  throne  of  Denmark  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Emperor  to  whom  he  did  homage.  Ansgar  ("the 
Apostle  of  the  North")  sailed  with  him  down 
the  Rhine  to  convert  Denmark.  Ebo,  Archbishop 
of  Rheims,  had  been  on  a  fruitless  mission  to 
Denmark  in  823.     Ansgar  was  born  in  Picardie  in 


THE    JELLINGE    STONE 


Origins  5 

801.  He  entered  the  Frankish  monastery,  Corbie, 
and  moved  to  New  Corvei  in  Saxony,  founded  in 
822  by  the  Corbie  Benedictines.  Ansgar  estab- 
lished a  school  at  Hedeby  (Slesvig),  but  he  had 
to  flee  the  country  in  827  when  King  Harald  was 
expelled.  At  the  request  of  certain  Swedes  the 
Emperor  sent  him  on  a  mission  there  in  829. 
When  he  arrived  at  Birca,  the  chief  city  of  Sweden, 
King  Biorn  permitted  him  to  preach.  The  bap- 
tized chieftain,  Hergeir,  built  a  church  in  Birca. 
After  eighteen  months  Ansgar  returned  to  Ger- 
many, and  was  appointed  Archbishop  of  Ham- 
burg in  831,  with  Scandinavia  for  his  mission-field. 
In  845  King  Horik  of  Denmark  sailed  up  the  Elbe 
with  six  hundred  ships,  plundered  Hamburg  and 
burnt  Ansgar's  church  and  monastery  and  his 
Danish  school.  But  in  848  the  Emperor  made 
Ansgar  Bishop  of  Bremen,  yet  retaining  the  title 
of  Archbishop  of  Hamburg.  About  850  the  first 
church  in  Denmark  was  built  in  Slesvig.  The 
next  church  was  erected  at  Ripe  (now  Ribe), 
these  two  churches  being  the  only  ones  in  Den- 
mark long  after  Ansgar's  death.  News  reached 
him  from  Sweden  that  his  missionaries  had  been 
expelled,  and  in  853  he  went  there  a  second  time. 
Single-handed  he  succeeded  in  persuading  King 
Olaf  and  a  hostile  assembly  to  tolerate  the  new 
faith.  Ansgar  died  in  Bremen,  865,  sixty-four 
years  old,  and  his  successor  and  pupil,  Rimbert, 
wrote  his  Life.  St.  Ansgar — he  was  canonized— 
was  a  noble  and  winning  character,  full  of  self- 


6  The  Story  of  Denmark 

sacrifice  and  burning  zeal.  A  visionary  who 
realized  his  visions  in  life,  who  lived  on  bread  and 
water,  and  wore  a  hair  shirt  next  to  his  body.  He 
deserves  his  name,  "the  Apostle  of  the  North." 

The  history  of  Denmark  during  the  next  century, 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century,  is 
shrouded  in  obscurity.  As  Adam  of  Bremen  says : 
"Whether  of  all  these  kings  or  tyrants  in  Denmark 
some  ruled  the  country  simultaneously  or  one 
lived  shortly  after  the  other  is  uncertain."  Saxo 
gives  the  names  of  no  less  than  fifty  kings  of  Den- 
mark who  reigned  before  the  Viking  Age.  King 
Gorm  raised  a  runic  stone  at  Jellinge  in  memory  of 
his  queen,  Thyri,  with  the  following  inscription: 
"King  Gorm  set  this  monument  after  his  queen, 
Thyri,  Denmark's  guardian  (tanmarkar  but)." 
She  was  called  thus  because  she  built  the  Danevirke 
(Danework)  in  three  years,  each  province  of  Den- 
mark building  the  part  assigned  to  it  of  the  wall 
of  earth,  turf,  stones,  and  timber,  stretching  from 
the  Bay  of  Slien  to  the  River  Eider,  almost  ten 
miles  in  length.  It  served  to  defend  the  southern 
frontier.  ^Ethelfled,  the  Lady  of  Mercia,  the 
sister  of  Alfred  the  Great,  had  a  little  earlier  built 
similar  works  in  England  against  the  Danes  them- 
selves. The  earliest  occurrence  of  the  name  Den- 
mark in  Denmark  itself  is  on  Thyri's  stone. 

Gorm's  son,  Harald  Bluetooth  (940-86),  is  the 
first  Christian  king  of  all  Denmark.  The  Saxon 
monk  Widukind  of  Corvey,  writing  in  970,  relates 
how  the  German  priest  Poppo  converted  the  King 


w 


ORNAMENTS,  CHIEFLY   BUCKLES,  OF   THE   VIKING   AGE 


The  Viking  Age  7 

by  carrying  red-hot  iron  in  his  naked  hands,  un- 
hurt, about  q6o.  But  already  about  the  middle 
of  the  century  Archbishop  Adaldag  of  Hamburg 
began  to  organize  the  Danish  Church  by  appoint- 
ing bishops,  Hored  of  Slesvig,  Liufdag  of  Ripe, 
Reginbrand  of  Arus  (now  Aarhus).  Harald  sub- 
dued Southern ,  Norway  and  Earl  Hakon  became 
his  vassal  but  refused  to  adopt  the  new  faith.  As 
Harald  says  with  pride  on  the  runic  stone  he  raised 
at  Jellinge  in  Jutland:  "King  Harald  bade  make 
this  monument  after  Gorm,  his  father,  and  after 
Thyri,  his  mother,  that_JIarald  who  conquered 
all  Denmark  and  Norway,  and  "made  the  Danes 
Christians."  Harald  lost  Norway  before  his 
death,  and  was  killed  in  a  war  against  his  son 
Sven,  986. 

Sven  Forkbeard  (989-1014)  laid  siege  to  Lon- 
don in  994,  unsuccessfully.'./wintered  in  Southamp- 
ton 994-95,  and  was  bought  off  with ;  Danegeld. 
It  was  probably  on  his  return  to  Denmark  that 
he  let  the  moneyer  Godwin  strike  coins  in  imitation 
of  a  coin  of  Ethelred  the  Unready.  It  is  the  first 
real  coin  struck  in  Denmark,  and  bears  the  name 
of  king  and  moneyer.  No  other  coins  dating 
from  his  reign  have  been  found,  but  English  coins, 
i.  e.,  Danegeld,  have  been  found  in  abundance. 

In  league  with  King  Olaf  of  Sweden,  and  with 
Eric  and  Sven,  the  sons  of  Earl  Hakon  of  Norway, 
he  defeated  King  Olaf  Tryggvason  of  Norway  in 
the  famous  battle  of  Svold,  off  the  coast  of  Rugen, 
in  A.D.  1000.     Sven  had  put  away  his  Polish  wife, 


8  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Gunhild,  and  married  Sigrid  the  Proud,  the  widow 
of  Eric  the  Victorious,  King  of  Sweden.  Olaf 
Tryggvason  had  been  one  of  her  suitors,  but  when 
she  refused  his  demand  that  she  should  be  baptized 
he  called  her  "heathen  like  a  dog,"  and  struck 
her  in  the  face  with  his  glove.  ' '  This  will  be  your 
death,"  Sigrid  exclaimed.  She  had  egged  on  her 
new  husband  to  avenge  the  insult.  Besides, 
Sven's  sister  who  had  run  away  from  her  husband, 
the  Duke  of  Poland,  had  married  the  King  of 
Norway,  without  Sven's  consent.  Norway  was 
then  divided  among  the  three  conquerors. 


CHAPTER  II 

CNUT  THE   GREAT 

After  the  massacre  of  the  Danes  in  England  on 
St.  Brice's  Day,  November  13,  1002,  one  of  the 
victims  of  which  was  Sven's  sister  Gunhild,  wife 
of  an  ealdorman,  Pallig,  King  Sven  made  a  vow 
to  wrest  England  from  Ethelred.  For  years  he 
ravaged  and  raided  till  Ethelred  fled  to  Normandy. 
Sven  became  master  of  England  in  1013,  but  he 
died  on  February  3,  1014,  at  Gainsborough. 
Adam  of  Bremen  relates  that  priests  and  bishops 
came  from  England  to  preach  in  Denmark  during 
Sven's  reign,  among  them  Bishop  Godebald  to 
Scania.  It  is  significant  that  the  Danish  Odinkar, 
Bishop  of  Ripe  (Ribe),  had  all  Jutland  for  his 
diocese  during  Sven's  reign,  as  Sven  would  not 
appoint  German  bishops  to  the  vacant  bishoprics. 
Cnut  was  now  elected  King  by  the  Danish  army 
in  England.  He  had  to  leave,  but  returned 
(1015)  with  a  huge  fleet.  Harald,  Sven's  eldest 
son,  succeeded  Sven  in  Denmark  and,  with  his 
brother  Cnut,  brought  their  mother,  Gunhild, 
home  from  her  exile  in  Poland.  Cnut  had  to 
conquer  England  over   again.     The    death    first 

9 


io  The  Story  of  Denmark 

of  Ethelred  and  then  of  Edmund  Ironside  (six 
months  after  dividing  England  with  Cnut)  in 
1016  left  Cnut  in  possession,  after  a  severe  struggle. 
The  twenty-two-year -old  viking  leader  ruled 
England,  not  as  a  conqueror  but  with  greater 
wisdom  and  justice  than  its  native  kings.  He 
married  Ethelred's  widow,  Emma.  He  sent  his 
Danish  army  out  of  the  country  and  retained  only 
his  trained  household  troops,  the  house-carls,  a 
standing  army  of  three  thousand  men.  He  wished 
England  to  be  governed  by  Englishmen.  After 
102 1  Earl  Thorkil  the  High,  his  chief  adviser, 
yields  place  to  an  Englishman,  Godwine.  Cnut's 
ideal  seems  to  have  been  an  Anglo-Scandinavian 
Empire,  of  which  England  was  to  be  the  head  and 
centre.  In  1018  he  succeeded  to  the  throne  of 
Denmark,  after  the  death  of  his  brother  Harald. 
In  1028  he  sailed  to  Norway  with  1400  ships  and 
seized  it  without  a  sword-stroke.  When  King 
Olaf  attempted  to  reconquer  his  country,  he  was 
slain  by  the  Norwegian  bonder  in  the  battle  of 
Stiklastad,  July  29,  1030.  Sven,  the  son  of  Cnut 
and  Aelfgifa,  was  appointed  viceroy  of  Norway. 
At  Christmas,  1026,  Cnut  and  his  brother-in-law, 
Earl  Ulf,  bandied  high  words  over  a  game  of  chess 
at  Roskilde,  the  royal  residence  in  Denmark. 
Next  morning  he  ordered  one  of  his  men  to  slay 
the  Earl  wherever  he  found  him,  and  he  ran  the 
Earl  through  when  kneeling  down  in  the  choir  of 
Trinity  Church.  Next  spring  Cnut  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Rome,  not  only  to  expiate  his  sin 


Cnut  the  Great  n 

but  also  for  State  reasons.  He  was  the  first 
Scandinavian  king  to  enter  the  Eternal  City. 
On  Easter  Day,  1027,  the  Emperor,  Conrad  II, 
after  his  coronation  by  the  Pope  in  St.  Peter's, 
walked  out  of  the  Cathedral  with  Cnut  to  the 
right  and  the  King  of  Burgundy  on  his  left  side. 
Cnut's  novel  conception  of  kingship  stands  out 
in  the  letter  sent  by  him  from  Rome  to  his  English 
subjects:  "I  do  you  to  wit  that  I  have  travelled 
to  Rome  to  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  my  sins 
and  for  the  welfare  of  the  peoples  under  my  rule. 
...  I  have  vowed  to  God  to  rule  my  kingdoms 
justly  and  piously.  I  am  ready,  with  God's  help, 
to  amend  to  the  utmost  whatever  heretofore  I 
have  done,  in  the  wilfulness  and  negligence  of 
youth,  against  what  is  just.  My  officers  shall 
administer  justice  to  all,  rich  and  poor,  nor  do 
wrong  for  fear  or  favour  of  any  man,  on  pain  of 
losing  my  friendship  and  their  own  life  and  goods. 
I  have  no  need  that  money  be  gathered  for  me  by 
unjust  demands.  I  have  sent  this  letter  so  that 
all  people  in  my  realm  may  rejoice  in  my  welfare, 
for,  as  you  know,  never  have  I  spared — nor  shall 
I  spare — to  spend  myself  and  my  toil  in  what  is 
needful  and  good  for  my  people." 

In  Cnut's  reign  churches  were  built  and  the 
earliest  monasteries  founded  in  Denmark.  He 
sent  bishops  from  England  to  Denmark,  Gerbrand 
to  Roskilde,  Bernhard  to  Lund,  also  Reginbert. 
All  these  names  are  Frankish.  Abbot  Lyfing, 
who  accompanied  Cnut  to  Denmark  and  to  Rome, 


12 


The  Story  of  Denmark 


was  his  adviser  in  establishing  the  Danish  Church, 
which  Cnut  wished  to  be  subject  to  Canterbury. 
The  Archbishop  of  Bremen  tried  in  vain  to  pre- 
vent   the    Anglicizing   of    the    Danish    Church. 


DANISH    COINS    FROM    THE    REIGN    OF    CNUT    THE    GREAT,    MINTED 
AT   LUND,    ROSKILDE,   RINGSTEAD 


Peter's  pence  was  introduced  in  Denmark.  The 
first  regular  Danish  coinage  dates  from  Cnut's 
reign,  and  English  moneyers  worked  for  him  in 
several  Danish  towns.  English  civilization  and 
culture  struck  root  in  Denmark.  Cnut  died  on 
November  12,  1035,  thirty-seven  years  old,  and 
is  buried  at  Winchester.  The  Norwegians,  dis- 
satisfied with  his  son  Sven,  called  Magnus,  the 
son  of  St.  Olaf,  to  rule  Norway. 

"Cnut,"  says  the  Icelandic  Knytlinga  Saga, 
"was  of  great  size  and  strength,  and  very  hand- 
some except  that  his  nose  was  thin,  high,  and 


CANUTE    AND    EMMA 

(The  King  and  Queen  are  presenting  a  golden  cross  to   Winchester  Abbey, 
New  Minster.) 

From  a  miniature  reproduced  in  Liber  Vita  (Birch) 


Cnut  the  Great  13 

slightly  bent.  He  had  a  light  complexion  and 
fair,  thick  hair,  and  his  eyes  surpassed  the  eyes 
of  most  men,  in  beauty  and  in  keenness."  His 
contemporaries  called  him  Cnut  the  Mighty, 
ruler  as  he  was  of  England,  Southern  Scotland, 
Denmark,  Norway,  and  of  the  Wendish  (Slavonic) 
lands  along  the  south  coast  of  the  Baltic,  including 
Jomsborg,  the  stronghold  of  the  Baltic  vikings. 
He  subdued  the  Baltic  coast  in  1022.  In  1026 
he  beat  back  the  attack  which  the  allied  kings  of 
Sweden  and  Norway  made  on  Denmark  in  his 
absence.  Posterity  has  called  him  Cnut  the  Great. 
His  Anglo-Scandinavian  empire  crumbled  at 
his  death.  His  life  was  too  short  to  lay  its  founda- 
tions stable  and  sure.  The  violent  viking  temper 
in  him  has  its  outbursts,  but  he  devotes  much 
care  to  the  Church,  to  education,  and  to  the  poor. 
As  the  Icelandic  historian,  Snorri  Sturluson, 
says:  "In  his  Kingdom  was  so  good  a  peace  that 
no  one  dared  break  it."  The  greatest  of  Danish 
kings,  he  has  only  his  equals  in  Alfred  and  Eliza- 
beth as  ruler  of  England. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  EARLY  MIDDLE  AGE 

Hartha-Cnut,  his  son  by  Emma,  succeeded  Cnut 
in  Denmark,  where  he  had  been  viceroy  since  1032. 
After  the  death  of  his  half-brother,  Harald  Hare- 
foot,  King  of  England  (1035-40),  he  reunited 
England  and  Denmark.  He  ordered  Harald's 
body  to  be  dug  up  and  flung  into  the  Thames. 
In  1042  he  fell  down  dead  as  he  stood  at  his  drink 
at  a  wedding-feast  in  Lambeth.  As  the  chronicler 
says,  "He  never  did  anything  royal."  Thus  the 
incapacity  of  Cnut's  sons  dissolved  the  union  of 
England  and  Denmark,  and  the  dream  of  an 
Anglo-Scandinavian  empire  vanished.  Edward 
the  Confessor  succeeded  to  the  English  throne, 
and  the  son  of  St.  Olaf,  Magnus  the  Good, 
King  of  Norway,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of 
Denmark. 

Sven  Estrithson  (1047-76)  was  the  son  of  Earl 
Ulf  and  Estrith,  daughter  of  Sven  Forkbeard, 
after  whom  he  is  called,  since  it  was  owing  to  her 
royal  birth  that  he  was  elected  king.  Of  him  the 
Knytlinga  Saga  says  that  "he  was  handsome,  tall 
and  strong,  generous  and  wise,  just  and  brave  but 

14 


The  Early  Middle  Age  15 

never  victorious  in  war."  Born  in  England  about 
1018,  he  was  educated  there.  His  father  governed 
Denmark  when  Cnut  the  Great  was  absent. 
After  the  murder  of  his  father  he  took  refuge  on 
the  large  estate  left  him  by  his  grandmother  Sigrid, 
in  Sweden.  Hartha-Cnut  gave  him  the  title  of 
Earl,  but  at  his  death  in  1042  Magnus  the  Good, 
King  of  Norway,  succeeded  to  the  Danish  throne 
in  accordance  with  the  Treaty  of  Brenneyjar 
between  him  and  Hartha-Cnut.  Magnus  created 
Sven  Earl,  though  his  leading  chieftain,  Einar, 
called  out  to  him :  "Too  mighty  an  Earl,  too  mighty 
an  Earl,  my  foster-son!"  Sven  took  the  name  of 
king,  and  rose  more  than  once  against  Magnus, 
but  was  always  defeated.  On  his  death-bed  in 
1047  Magnus  the  Good  gave  Denmark  to  Sven, 
who  for  seventeen  years  had  to  defend  it  in  long 
wars  against  King  Harald  Hardrada  of  Norway. 
He  suffered  numerous  defeats,  but  he  never  de- 
spaired, and  in  1064  he  had  wearied  Harald  out, 
and  was  allowed  to  keep  Denmark  in  peace.  After 
the  Conquest  Sven  prepared  to  take  England  from 
the  Conqueror.  His  brother  Esbern,  who  had 
been  outlawed  from  England  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  commanded  a  fleet  of 
240  ships,  which  sailed  in  August,  1069,  to  conquer 
England.  Cnut  and  Harald,  Sven's  sons,  were 
on  board.  Esbern  rowed  up  the  Humber  and 
seized  York.  When  the  Conqueror  approached 
with  an  army  he  could  not  reach  them  on  board 
their  ships  in  the  river,  and  merely  ravaged  the 


1 6  The  Story  of  Denmark 

country.  Esbern  left  for  Denmark  in  June,  1070, 
bribed  or  bought  off,  it  is  supposed;  at  any  rate 
he  was  exiled  by  the  King  on  his  return.  In  1075 
a  second  expedition  of  two  hundred  ships,  com- 
manded by  Cnut,  failed  for  lack  of  support  by 
the  Danes  of  the  Danelag.  Cnut  brought  the 
relics  of  St.  Alban  with  him  to  Denmark,  and 
deposited  them  in  the  church  of  Odense. 

About  1060  Sven  completed  the  organization 
of  the  Danish  Church.  He  divided  Jutland, 
which  was  then  under  one  bishop,  into  four 
bishoprics,  Ripe  (Ribe),  Viborg,  Aros  (Aarhus), 
and  Vestervig  (later  Borglum),  and  founded  the 
bishoprics  of  Lund  and  Dalby  in  Scania.  Dalby 
was  soon  joined  to  Lund  in  one  bishopric.  Ac- 
cording to  Adam  of  Bremen,  Scania  had  300 
churches,  Siaelland  150,  Funen  100.  Sven  fa- 
voured the  Church,  and  the  building  of  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Roskilde  began  in  his  reign. 

Sven  had  nineteen  children — fifteen  sons  and 
four  daughters — all  illegitimate  but  one,  a  son 
who  died  in  infancy.  Five  of  his  sons  were  kings 
of  Denmark  successively.  He  was  compelled 
by  Archbishop  Adalbert  of  Bremen  to  divorce 
his  queen,  Gunild,  the  widow  of  the  Swedish  King 
Anund  Jacob,  because  she  was  a  daughter  of  a 
half-sister  of  Sven's  mother,  Estrith.  Adam  of 
Bremen,  in  his  History  of  the  Archbishops  of 
Hamburg,  which  reached  to  about  1072,  quotes 
Sven  as  one  of  his  chief  sources,  since  "he  held  the 
whole  history  of  the  barbarians  in  his  memory,  as 


The  Early  Middle  Age  17 

it  were  in  a  written  book."     Sven  told  him  Danish 
history  by  word  of  mouth. 

Harald  Hen  (the  Gentle,  1076-80)  the  eldest  of 
Sven's  sons,  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Cnut, 
(1080-86),  who  took  up  the  plan  of  his  youth,  the 
conquest  of  England;  an  immense  fleet  of  one 
thousand  ships  assembled  in  the  Limfjord,  among 
them  ships  from  his  brother-in-law,  Olaf  the  Quiet, 
King  of  Norway,  and  his  father-in-law,  the  Count 
of  Flanders,  but  Henry  IV  of  Germany  compelled 
Cnut  to  guard  his  southern  frontier,  for  the  Emper- 
or's enemies  fled  to  Denmark.  The  fleet  waited 
for  Cnut  all  the  summer  of  1085,  and  when  pro- 
visions failed,  disbanded.  Cnut  punished  them 
with  fines  which  he  wanted  to  commute  into  tithes 
for  the  clergy.  A  general  rising  took  place  in 
Jutland  and  Cnut  fled  to  Funen.  On  July  10, 
1086,  at  evensong,  in  the  wooden  church  of  St. 
Alban  at  Odense,  Cnut,  his  brother  Benedict,  and 
seventeen  warriors,  defending  him,  were  stoned 
and  speared.  His  character  resembles  that  of 
Gregory  VII,  and  he  became  the  Protomartyr  of 
Denmark  less  owing  to  sanctity  of  his  life  than  to 
his  patronage  of  the  Church.  He  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Olaf,  nicknamed  Hunger  (1086-95), 
because  Denmark  suffered  from  bad  seasons  and 
famine  in  his  reign — the  vengeance  of  God,  it 
was  believed,  for  the  murder  of  the  Saint.  Olaf 
transferred  the  bones  of  Cnut  at  Easter,  1095, 
to  a  stone  church.  After  a  general  fast  of  three 
days  his  grave  was  opened  and  at  that  very  mo- 


iS  The  Story  of  Denmark 

ment  two  days'  unceasing  rain  stopped,  the  sun 
shone  in  a  blue  sky,  and  all  joined  in  a  Te  Deum. 
Cnut's  bones  were  laid  in  the  crypt  of  the  unfin- 
ished stone  church  the  foundation  of  which  he  had 
laid  and  which  was  then  called  St.  Cnut's  Church. 
He  was  enshrined  at  Easter,  noi,  after  Pope 
Paschalis  II  had  canonized  him.  King  Eric  the 
Evergood  (Eiegod)  in  1098  went  on  a  "pilgrimage 
to  Rome  in  order  to  get  his  brother  Cnut  canon- 
ized and  to  get  an  archiepiscopal  see  established 
at  Lund.  Urban  II  granted  both  his  requests  at 
the  Church  Council  of  Bari.  Eric  met  Anselm 
of  Canterbury  there,  and  visited  Duke  Roger  of 
Apulia,  who  was  married  to  Edel,  St.  Cnut's 
widow."  Edel  sent  precious  stones  for  the  Saint's 
shrine.  In  a.d.  iioo  Eric  sent  for  twrelve  monks 
from  Evesham-on-Avon,  who  settled  in  the  first 
monastery  built  in  Denmark,  close  by  St.  Alban's 
Church. 

King  Eric  the  Evergood  (1095-1103)  had  eight 
men's  strength  and  was  taller  than  other  men. 
He  was  the  first  King  in  Europe  who  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Palestine;  it  was  in  penance  for 
homicide.  He  died  in  Cyprus  on  July  10th,  St. 
Cnut's  Day,  in  1103,  but  his  queen,  Bodil,  con- 
tinued the  journey  to  Palestine,  where  she  died. 
Paschalis  II  sent  Cardinal  Alberic  with  the  archi- 
episcopal pallium  to  Bishop  Asser  of  Lund,  a 
nephew  of  Queen  Bodil,  in  1104.  Archbishop 
Anselm  of  Canterbury  in  a  letter,  extant,  congratu- 
lates Asser   on   being  appointed   Primate  of  the 


The  Early  Middle  Age  19 

North,  but  no  papal  bull  establishing  the  arch- 
bishopric is  preserved.  Thus  the  Scandinavian 
nations  were  freed  from  German  Primates  who 
did  not  know  their  language.  Niels  (1103-34), 
the  fifth  of  the  brothers  who  reigned  as  king,  ap- 
pointed Cnut,  son  of  Eric  Evergood,  Earl  or 
Duke  of  Slesvig,  11 15.  Hereafter  the  Earls  of 
Slesvig  were  called  Dukes  (Hertog).  Cnut  was 
then  twenty-one  years  old.  He  was  beloved  by 
the  people,  and  he  was  called  Cnut  Lavard  (the 
Middle  English  form  of  English  lord);  he  was 
elected  alderman  of  St.  Cnut's  Guild  at  Hedeby. 
He  was  married  to  Ingeborg,  daughter  of  Grand 
Duke  Mstislav  of  Novgorod.  Cnut  had  been 
educated  at  a  German  Court  and  he  brought 
German  culture  to  Denmark. 

Archbishop  Asser  began  to  build  a  cathedral  at 
Lund,  in  spite  of  peasant  riots  caused  by  the 
enforcement  of  the  celibacy  of  the  priests.  Ael- 
noth  of  Canterbury,  one  of  the  St.  Cnut's  Friars 
at  Odense,  wrote  a  Life  of  St.  Cnut,  soon  after 
1 120,  and  dedicated  it  to  King  Niels. 

Cnut  Lavard  became  Prince  (Knes)  of  the 
Wendish  tribes  near  the  Danish  frontier.  He  was 
invited  by  King  Niels  to  spend  Christmas  at 
Roskilde  in  1130.  In  vain  he  was  warned  not  to 
go  by  Cecilia,  a  daughter  of  St.  Cnut,  whose 
brother,  Charles  the  Dane,  had  been  murdered 
kneeling  before  the  altar,  in  1 127,  in  the  same 
way  as  her  father  had  been  slain  in  1086.  Cnut 
Lavard  was  assassinated  in  a  wood  on  January  7, 


20  The  Story  of  Denmark 

1 131,  by  Magnus,  King  Niels'  son.  As  the 
Chronicle  says:  "Magnus,  King  Niels'  only  son, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  slew,  in  treacherous 
peace,  Cnut,  son  of  King  Eric,  a  chaste  and  tem- 
perate man,  gifted  and  eloquent."  "Purple  does 
not  ward  off  sword-strokes,"  Cnut's  cousin  had 
said  to  him,  alluding  to  his  foreign  dress.  "Sheep- 
skin does  not,  either,"  Cnut  answered. 

Cnut's  widow,  Ingeborg,  gave  birth  to  his  post- 
humous son  on  January  14,  1 131.  She  called 
him  Valdemar,  after  her  grandfather,  Grand  Duke 
Vladimir.  Civil  war  ensued,  the  bloodstained 
clothes  of  Cnut  being  exhibited  at  public  assem- 
blies. In  the  battle  of  Fotevik,  in  Scania,  on 
Whit  Monday,  June  4,  1134,  Magnus,  Niels'  son, 
five  bishops,  and  sixty  priests  were  killed,  and  the 
victor,  Eric,  a  half-brother  to  Cnut  Lavard,  was 
called  Emune  (Ever-to-be-remembered)  after- 
wards. King  Niels  fled  to  Slesvig,  and  was  killed 
on  June  25th  by  the  guild-brothers  of  St.  Cnut, 
who  were  bound  to  avenge  the  death  of  their 
alderman.  Eric  Emune  (1134-37),  a  tyrant  who 
put  to  death  his  brother  and  his  nephew,  was 
assassinated  at  a  public  assembly.  Eric  Lamb 
(1137-47),  a  grandson  of  Eric  Evergood,  by  his 
daughter,  succeeded  him  as  the  three  princes 
nearest  to  the  throne  were  only  from  six  to  eight 
years  old.  Eskil,  Asser's  nephew,  succeeded  him 
as  Primate  of  the  North  in  1 137.  The  gentle 
but  feeble  Eric  abdicated  in  1 147  and  retired  to  a 
monastery.      Civil  war  raged  from    1147-57  be- 


The  Early  Middle  Age  21 

tween  Sven,  the  illegitimate  son  of  Eric  Emune, 
Cnut,  son  of  Magnus,  and  Valdemar,  son  of  Cnut 
Lavard.  They  divided  Denmark  between  them- 
selves. Sven  assassinated  Cnut  at  a  banquet  at 
Roskilde,  while  Valdemar,  with  his  foster-brother, 
Absalon,  was  wounded  and  barely  escaped  as- 
sassination. Sven  was  defeated  and  killed  in 
battle  by  Valdemar  in  1157. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  AGE  OF  THE  VALDEMARS    (1157-I241) 

Valdemar  I,  later  called  the  Great  (1157-82), 
healed  the  wounds  of  the  civil  war.  He  appointed 
an  Englishman,  Radulph,  his  chaplain,  and  made 
him  subsequently  his  chancellor,  and  then  Bishop 
of  Ripe  (Ribe).  There  was  an  open  rupture 
between  the  King  and  Archbishop  Eskil;  they 
supported  rival  Popes  during  the  schism.  Eskil 
at  last  had  to  go  into  seven  years'  voluntary  exile 
at  the  Abbey  of  Clairvaux.  He  was  a  pupil  of 
St.  Bernard.  In  1178  Eskil  abdicated  as  arch- 
bishop and  retired,  to  end  his  life  at  Clairvaux  in 
1 182.  Absalon,  whose  Danish  name,  Axel,  was 
thus  Latinized,  had  been  Bishop  of  Roskilde 
since  1 158,  and  was  now  fifty  years  old.  He  was 
solemnly  elected  Primate  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Lund,  but  refused  to  accept,  though  the  King, 
Archbishop  Eskil,  and  his  clergy  and  the  people 
pressed  it  upon  him,  and  his  clothes  were  torn  in 
the  attempt  to  force  him  into  the  archiepiscopal 
seat.  Finally  the  Pope  commanded  him  to  accept, 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  but  permitted  him 
to  continue   Bishop   of   Roskilde.     Denmark  has 

22 


The  Age  of  the  Valdemars         23 

never  produced  a  greater  personality  than  Absalon. 
He  was  equally  eminent  as  statesman,  warrior, 
and  churchman.  For  a  generation  he  guided 
Denmark  in  peace  and  war  with  supreme  ability. 
When  Valdemar  came  on  the  throne,  about  one 
third  of  Denmark  lay  wasted  and  depopulated  by 
the  continual  irruptions  of  the  heathen  Wends. 
Absalon  beat  them  off,  and  for  ten  years  he  was 
engaged  in  a  series  of  crusades  against  them  to  the 
south  of  the  Baltic.  At  last  in  1169,  with  Val- 
demar, he  stormed  the  inaccessible  Wendish  temple 
stronghold  of  Arcona,  on  the  northern  promontory 
of  Riigen.  The  four-headed,  gigantic  wooden 
statue  of  their  chief  god,  Svantovit,  was  demol- 
ished in  the  presence  of  hundreds  of  temple  priests 
and  chopped  into  firewood  for  the  Danish  camp. 
The  Wendish  capital,  Garz,  was  taken  and  the 
seven-headed  Rugievit  suffered  the  same  fate. 
The  Wends  were  baptized,  and  the  island  of  Rugen 
was  annexed  to  the  bishopric  of  Roskilde. 

To  protect  the  fishing  village  of  Havn  (Haven, 
Hafnia) — first  mentioned  in  Knytlinga  Saga,  1043 
— on  the  Sound  against  pirates,  Absalon  built  a 
stronghold,  in  1168,  Castram  de  Havn,  on  the  site 
where  now  stands  Christiansborg  Palace  in  Copen- 
hagen. King  Valdemar  made  a  grant  of  the 
future  capital  of  Denmark  to  the  see  of  Roskilde, 
and  the  bishops  gave  it  municipal  privileges, 
subsequently  confirmed  by  royal  charter.  It 
was  called  Kaupmanna  Havn  (Chapmen's  or 
Merchants'  Haven)  because  of  its  trade,  and  the 


24  The  Story  of  Denmark 

city  is  still  called  Copmanhaven  in  Elizabethan 
English.  The  modern  Danish  is  Kobenhavn, 
while  modern  English  Copenhagen  is  borrowed 
from  German  Kopenhagen.  Absalon's  statue  on 
horseback,  a  battle-axe  in  his  right  hand,  stands 
to-day  near  the  site  of  his  castle. 

On  June  25,  11 70,  the  solemn  enshrinement  of 
Cnut  Lavard  as  a  Saint  took  place  at  Ringsted 
simultaneously  with  the  coronation  of  Cnut  (VI), 
the  seven-year-old  son  of  Valdemar.  It  was  the 
first  coronation  of  a  Danish  king.  Valdemar  I 
died  suddenly,  forty-seven  years  old.  The  lines 
on  his  epitaph  at  Ringsted  Church  run:  "Primus 
Sclavorum  expugnator  et  dominator,  patrie  libera- 
tor, pacis  conservator."  As  the  Chronicle  says: 
"He  was  lamented  by  all  Denmark  for  which  he 
fought  more  than  twenty-eight  battles  in  heathen 
lands  and  warred  against  the  pagans  to  the  glory 
of  God's  Church  so  long  as  he  lived." 

Cnut  VI  (1 182-1202)  conquered  Pomerania 
and  Mecklenburg,  with  Absalon's  help.  In  1184, 
on  Whit  Sunday,  Absalon  annihilated  the  Pome- 
ranian fleet  in  a  great  battle.  As  Cnut  added  all 
the  lands  of  the  Wends  from  the  Vistula  to  the 
Elbe  to  his  dominions,  he  assumed  the  title  of 
Rex  Sclavorum,  King  of  the  Wends  or  Slavonians, 
in  1 185,  a  title  retained  by  the  Kings  of  Denmark 
to-day.  Cnut  defied  the  German  Emperor,  Fred- 
erick Barbarossa,  and  refused  to  render  him 
fealty  for  the  land  south  to  the  Elbe  conquered 
by  his  brother.     King   Philip  August  of  France, 


The  Age  of  the  Valdemars         25 

when  he  married  Cnut's  sister,  Ingeborg,  in  1193, 
wanted  Cnut  to  make  over  to  him  the  claims  of 
the  Danish  kings  to  the  English  crown  and  to 
have  the  full  use  of  the  Danish  army  and  navy 
to  enforce  these  claims.  Philip  August  put  away 
his  queen  in  a  nunnery  for  years,  but  was  com- 
pelled by  Innocent  III  to  take  her  back.  Of 
Cnut  VI  the  Chronicle  says:  "He  was  not  given 
to  whispering  conversation  or  fun,  during  mass, 
as  some  are  wont,  but  held  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
psalter  or  prayer  book,  in  meditation." 

Absalon  died  on  March  21,  1201.  He  had 
studied  at  the  University  of  Paris,  where  a  college 
for  Danes  {Collegium  Dacicum)  had  been  founded. 
He  was  a  patron  of  literary  men,  and  encouraged 
his  secretary  Saxo,  later  called  Grammaticus,  to 
write  a  history  of  Denmark,  Gesta  Danorum, 
which  comes  down  to  about  a.d.  1185.  Sven 
Aggeson,  a  contemporary,  also  wrote  a  history  of 
Denmark,  ending  in  the  same  year.  The  Icelandic 
Knytlinga  Saga,  a  history  of  the  kings  of  Denmark 
from  Harald  Bluetooth  to  Cnut  VI,  also  ends  in 
1 1 85.  Saxo's  history  is  only  known  so  far  from 
the  text  printed  in  15 14,  but  for  some  fragments 
of  what  is  probably  his  own  MS.  of  the  history, 
discovered  at  Angers  in  1877.  The  first  history 
of  Denmark  written  by  a  Dane  is  the  Roskilde 
Chronicle,  from  the  time  of  Eric  Lamb,  1137-47. 

Valdemar  II,  the  Victorious  (Sejr)  (1202-41), 
was  a  brother  of  Cnut.  Before  his  accession  to 
the  throne,  while  he  was  Duke  of  Slesvig,  he  had 


26  The  Story  of  Denmark 

conquered  Holstein  and  the  territories  south  to 
the  Elbe,  and  after  his  coronation  he  was  recog- 
nized by  the  German  Emperor  as  Lord  of  Northal- 
bingia  (*.  e.,  the  territory  between  the  Eider  and 
the  Elbe).  Lubeck  and  Hamburg  were  now  sub- 
ject to  Denmark. 

In  1206-10  Valdemar  seized  the  island  of  Oesel, 
off  Esthonia  in  the  Baltic.  When  the  Bishop  of 
Riga  appealed  to  him  for  assistance,  he  set  out  on 
a  crusade  against  the  heathen  Esthonians.  He 
had  a  great  armada,  1400  vessels  in  all,  and  sailed 
with  about  1000.  The  city  of  Reval  opened 
its  gates  to  him.  Tradition  relates  how  in  the 
battle  of  Lyndanise,  near  Reval,  in  12 19,  the 
Danes  having  lost  their  banner  and  being  hard 
pressed,  a  red  banner  with  a  white  cross  in  the 
centre  dropped  from  the  sky,  when  the  Danes  at 
once  rallied  and  gained  a  victory.  The  Pope  may 
have  sent  a  consecrated  banner  to  be  used  in  this 
crusade.  The  Danebrog  (Danes'  cloth)  has  ever 
since  been  the  national  banner  of  Denmark.  It 
is  seen  in  the  arms  of  the  city  of  Reval  which  rose 
round  the  fortress  built  by  Valdemar,  who  estab- 
lished a  bishop  there.  The  Baltic  was  now  almost 
a  Danish  lake,  for  Denmark  held  its  southern 
coast  from  the  Elbe  to  Lake  Peipus.  No  monarch 
in  Northern  Europe,  except  the  King  of  England, 
held  sway  over  a  wider  dominion.  Since  Cnut  the 
Great,  Denmark  had  not  attained  such  a  pinnacle 
of  power.  Yet  in  one  day  this  empire,  and  with 
it  the  hegemony  of  the  North,  crumbled  to  dust. 


CHALICE    AND    RING   OF    ABSALON 


The  Age  of  the  Valdemars        27 

One  of  Valdemar's  German  vassals,  Count  Henry 
of  Schwerin,  had  a  grievance,  as  a  portion  of  his 
fief  had  been  taken  from  him  by  the  King.  On 
May  6,  1223,  Valdemar  and  his  eldest  son  were 
hunting  on  the  little  island  of  Lyo,  south  of  Funen. 
Count  Henry  was  their  guest,  but  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  May  6th  to  May  7th,  he  seized  them 
asleep  in  their  tent,  and  carried  them  off  to  a 
dungeon  in  Dannenberg  on  the  Elbe,  a  castle  in 
Germany  belonging  to  him.  Thereupon  the  North 
German  vassals  of  Valdemar  rose  against  Den- 
mark and  defeated  the  Danes.  After  an  impris- 
onment lasting  two  and  a  half  years  Valdemar 
was  compelled,  on  November  17,  1225,  to  pay 
in  ransom  for  himself  and  his  son  forty-five  thou- 
sand marks  silver,  all  the  Queen's  jewels,  and 
costly  apparel  for  one  hundred  knights,  to  cede 
all  his  conquests  except  Rugen,  to  give  hostages, 
and  take  an  oath  to  keep  these  conditions.  Thus 
in  one  night  the  conquests  made  by  three  kings 
in  sixty  years  were  lost.  The  Pope  absolved 
Valdemar  from  his  oath,  but  in  the  battle  of  Born- 
hoved,  July  22,  1227,  Valdemar's  final  attempt  to 
retrieve  his  fortune,  he  was  defeated  with  the  loss 
of  one  eye.  He  now  formally  ceded  Northal- 
bingia  to  the  Emperor.  He  had  lost  Esthonia, 
too,  in  the  fatal  year  1227,  but  recovered  it  in 
1238.  Of  his  Wendish  (Slavonic)  Empire  on 
the  Baltic  he  retained  only  the  island  of  Rugen. 
He  now  applied  himself  to  internal  administra- 
tion and  the  codifying  of  laws,  and  is  called  the 


28  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Lawmaker  (legifer)  in  the  next  century.  The  Liber 
Census  Daniae,  a  kind  of  Danish  Domesday  Book, 
was  drawn  up  in  1231.  There  were  even  then  420 
Jioue,  i.  e.,  German  homesteads,  in  the  crown-lands 
of  Slesvig,  which  was  then  wholly  Danish.  The 
Scanian  law  had  been  written  down  soon  after 
1200,  but  Valdemar  codified  the  Zealand  (Sjael- 
land)  Law,  and  the  Jutland  Law  Code  was  only 
completed  a  few  days  before  his  death  on  March 
28,  1241. 

He  was  first  married  to  Dragomir  (Danicized 
Dagmar),  a  daughter  of  King  Ottokar  I  of  Bo- 
hemia, and  then,  after  her  death,  to  Berengaria 
(Danicized  Bengerd),  a  daughter  of  King  Sancho 
of  Portugal.  His  first  queen  was  beloved  by  the 
people,  and  celebrated  in  folk-songs  and  ballads; 
the  second  was  unpopular.  Valdemar' s  four  sons 
all  became  Kings  of  Denmark,  but  the  eldest,  Val- 
demar III,  died  in  1231  as  co-regent  of  his  father. 

As  the  Ryd  Monastery  Annals  say:  "At  the 
death  of  Valdemar  II  the  crown  fell  off  the  head 
of  the  Danes.  From  that  time  forth  they  became 
a  laughing-stock  for  all  their  neighbours  through 
civil  wars  and  mutual  destruction,  and  the  lands 
which  they  had  honourably  won  with  their  sword 
were  not  only  lost  but  caused  great  disasters  to 
the  realm  and  wasted  it."  The  next  century 
( 1 241-1340)  is  a  time  of  decline,  when  nearly  all 
Danish  kings  die  a  violent  death. 


CHAPTER  V 

CIVIL  WARS 

Eric  Plogpenning  (Plough-penny)  (1241-50)  was 
called  thus  because  he  levied  a  tax  on  every 
ploughshare  in  the  kingdom  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  a  crusade  to  Esthonia.  His  brother,  Abel, 
Duke  of  Slesvig,  refused  to  do  homage  for  his 
fief;  after  prolonged  hostilities  they  were  recon- 
ciled, and  the  King  was  his  brother's  guest  in  the 
ducal  palace  near  Slesvig.  In  the  night  he  was 
seized  and  taken  in  a  boat  out  on  the  Slien,  al- 
lowed to  make  his  confession,  beheaded,  and  then 
sunk  with  heavy  chains  into  deep  water.  Some 
fishermen  found  the  body;  it  was  taken  to  a 
monastery,  the  monks  attested  the  miracles 
wrought  at  his  tomb,  and  after  a  time  he  was 
canonized  by  the  Pope.  Abel  (1250-52),  the 
fratricide,  of  whom  his  contemporary,  Matthew 
of  Paris,  says,  "Abel  only  by  name,  by  deed  Cain," 
purged  himself  of  all  guilt  by  his  own  oath  and  that 
of  twenty-four  nobles,  as  compurgators.  Abel 
enacted  many  wise  measures  and  encouraged 
trade  with  the  Hansa  cities.  He  fell  in  a  battle 
against  the  Frisians,  1252,.  and  his  brother,  Chris- 

29 


30  The  Story  of  Denmark 

topher  I  (1252-59),  was  elected  King.  His  reign 
was  a  struggle  with  a  Danish  Thomas  a,  Becket, 
Jacob  Erlandson,  Archbishop  of  Lund  since  1253. 
The  Archbishop  convened  a  Church  Council  in 
1256,  which  decreed  that  if  any  bishop  should 
suffer  any  injury  by  order,  connivance,  or  assent 
of  the  King,  the  kingdom  should  be  laid  under  inter- 
dict, and  divine  worship  suspended.  The  Primate 
threatened  to  excommunicate  any  bishop  who 
should  dare  to  assist  at  the  coronation  of  the 
King's  son,  Eric,  which  was  thus  foiled.  The 
Archbishop  was  now  seized  at  night,  February, 
1259,  and  carried  off  to  a  dungeon,  chained, 
with  a  cap  of  foxes'  tails  on  his  head.  The 
country  was  then  placed  under  an  interdict,  and 
Christopher  died  suddenly  three  months  later, 
May,  1259;  the  contemporary  suspicion  that 
he  had  been  poisoned  by  a  monk  seems  to  be 
groundless. 

Eric  Klipping  (1259-86)  (Klipping,  a  clipped 
sheepskin)  was  hardly  eleven  years  old  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  and  the  Queen-mother,  Mar- 
garet, governed  on  his  behalf.  The  struggle  with 
the  Archbishop  continued,  with  many  vicissitudes. 
A  papal  legate  came  to  Denmark  to  settle  the 
dispute,  and  he  excommunicated  the  King  and 
his  mother  and  laid  the  kingdom  under  interdict, 
as  they  did  not  attend  before  him.  The  interdict 
was  removed  in  1275,  after  it  had  remained  in 
force  with  varying  degrees  of  rigour  for  sixteen 
years,  but  the  Primate  had  died  the  year  before 


Civil  Wars  31 

on  his  way  back  to  his  archiepiscopal  see,  and 
Crown  and  Church  came  to  terms. 

On  March  19,  1282,  at  Vordingborg,  Eric,  with 
the  "best  men  of  the  realm,  lay  and  learned," 
enacted  a  Constitution  which  in  its  extended 
form,  enacted  at  Nyborg,  July  29,  1282,  is  the 
Magna  Carta  of  Denmark.  The  parlamentum 
quod  hoff  dicitur  (the  Parliament,  called  Danehof 
in  the  fourteenth  century)  shall  be  held  once  a 
year  in  mid- Lent,  and  its  time  and  place  shall  be 
made  known  one  month  beforehand.  No  one 
shall  be  imprisoned  unless  lawfully  found  guilty. 
Eric  granted  charters  of  incorporation  to  many 
towns,  and  favoured  the  guilds  and  enacted  guild 
statutes.  On  the  night  of  November  22,  1286, 
Eric  retired  to  sleep  in  Finderup  Barn  in  Jutland, 
tired  after  a  day's  hunting.  His  dead  body  was 
found  next  morning  with  fifty-six  wounds.  A 
contemporary  ballad  brands  the  atrocious  deed 
done  by  Danish  nobles.  At  the  Parliament  of 
Nyborg,  1287,  Eric  Mcendved  (1286-1319),  the 
twelve-year-old  son  of  Eric  Klipping,  with  the 
help  of  his  mother,  regent  during  his  minority, 
and  of  the  Duke  of  Slesvig,  his  guardian,  selected 
a  grand  jury  to  determine  the  guilt  of  the  regicides. 
Nine  were  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  perpetual 
banishment  and  the  confiscation  of  their  goods. 
The  assassins  had  fled  to  Norway  and  harassed 
Denmark  from  their  robber  nests  in  islets  on  the 
coast,  while  the  protection  given  them  by  the 
Norwegian    Court    caused    a   long   war   between 


32  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Denmark  and  Norway.  The  regicide  outlaws 
are  the  heroes  of  the  ballads  of  this  time.  The 
new  Archbishop,  Jens  Grand,  was  their  secret 
ally,  and  in  April,  1294,  ne  was  arrested  and  lin- 
gered in  a  dungeon,  where  he  was  treated  as  the 
lowest  criminal  with  every  circumstance  of  igno- 
miny till  December,  1295,  when  he  escaped.  The 
King  was  summoned  before  Boniface  VIII,  who 
received  the  Primate  as  a  martyr,  since  "there 
was  many  a  saint  in  heaven  who  had  suffered  less 
in  the  cause  of  God."  A  cardinals'  court  sentenced 
the  King  to  pay  the  Archbishop  forty-nine  thou- 
sand marks  of  silver  as  indemnity,  an  interdict  to 
be  laid  on  the  kingdom,  and  the  King  to  be  excom- 
municated until  the  sentence  was  complied  with 
and  all  their  rights  restored  to  the  clergy.  Eric 
vainly  tried  to  defy  the  Pope,  but  finally  made  an 
abject  submission,  in  an  autograph  letter:  "Let 
the  Vicar  of  Christ  restore  to  his  servant  his  lost 
ear  that  the  holy  sacraments  being  again  restored, 
he  may  again  freely  hear  the  Word  of  God,  and 
whatever  burden  your  Holiness  may  impose  upon 
his  shoulders,  how  heavy  soever,  he  will  not  refuse 
to  carry  the  same.  What  more  can  he  say? 
Speak,  Lord,  thy  servant  listens."  The  interdict 
was  removed,  the  indemnity  reduced  to  ten  thou- 
sand marks,  and  the  Archbishop  translated  to  a 
benefice  in  Germany.  Civil  war  broke  out  re- 
peatedly, owing  to  Christopher,  the  King's  brother, 
and  his  treason  and  treachery.  Eric  died  childless 
and  with  a  large  part  of  his  kingdom  mortgaged. 


Civil  Wars  33 

Christopher  II  (1320-32),  the  most  faithless  and 
useless  ruler  Denmark  has  ever  had,  was  com- 
pelled to  sign  a  capitulation,  on  his  election  as 
King,  safeguarding  the  rights  of  clergy,  commons, 
and  parliament.  Twice  he  was  driven  from  his 
kingdom  and  the  twelve-year-old  Duke  of  Slesvig 
was  King  (1326-30),  under  the  guardianship  of 
Count  Gerhard  III  of  Holstein.  The  monarchy 
was  divided  among  foreign  princes,  and  the  King 
died  in  extreme  poverty,  1332.  Gerhard  occupied 
Jutland,  and  laid  it  waste  with  his  mercenaries. 
After  a  lawless  interregnum  of  eight  years  (1332- 
40),  Gerhard  was  slain  at  night  in  his  camp  at 
Randers  by  a  Jutland  nobleman,  since  famous  in 
folk-song,  Niels  Ebbesen,  1340. 


CHAPTER  VI 

VALDEMAR  ATTERDAG    (134O-75) 

Valdemar  IV,  Atterdag,  the  youngest  son  of 
Christopher  II,  was  educated  at  the  Court  of  the 
Emperor  Lewis  of  Bavaria  (1326-40).  He  mar- 
ried Helvig,  the  sister  of  Duke  Valdemar  of  Slesvig, 
and  with  her  dowry  recovered  Northern  Jutland. 
Denmark  was  sunk  to  the  lowest  depth  in  its 
history,  and  all  its  provinces  were  held  by  foreign 
intruders,  when  he  was  elected  King.  He  was 
only  about  twenty  years  old,  but  already  then  he 
possessed  all  the  dogged  and  unscrupulous  energy, 
all  the  cool  calculation  and  determination  to  gain 
his  end  by  any  means  which  made  him  the  ' '  Re- 
storer of  Denmark."  He  had  only  the  revenue  of 
one  county  in  Jutland  to  keep  himself  and  his 
Court,  and  recover  a  Denmark  partitioned  among 
mortgagees,  mainly  the  Counts  of  Holstein.  Yet 
by  1349  he  had  recovered  all  Denmark  west  of  the 
Sound,  except  part  of  Funen  and  Jutland.  He 
sold  Esthonia  to  the  Teutonic  Knights  in  1346 
for  nineteen  thousand  marks  silver,  with  which 
he  recovered  alienated  royal  domains.  The  Black 
Death  raged  in  1349-50,  and  Jutish  noblemen  rose 

34 


Valdemar  Atterdag  35 

against  him.  This  enabled  him  to  seize  many 
estates.  With  his  restless  energy  he  wished  to 
reassert  the  old  claims  of  the  Danish  Crown  to 
England.  During  his  negotiations  with  King 
John  the  Good  of  France,  then  involved  in  the 
Hundred  Years'  War  with  England,  he  offered 
to  invade  England  with  twelve  thousand  men  if 
France  paid  him  six  hundred  thousand  florins; 
Valdemar's  son  was  to  marry  a  French  princess 
to  strengthen  the  alliance.  These  fantastic  plans 
(1354-56)  came  to  nothing,  but  Edward  III  of 
England  took  Valdemar's  enemies,  the  Counts  of 
Hoi  stein,  into  his  service.  Valdemar  won  a  great 
victory  over  the  Holstein  Counts  in  Funen  in 
1357.  His  wars  were  brought  to  a  close  in  the 
Parliament  (now  called  Danehoj)  at  Kallundborg 
(1360),  when  he  had  recovered  all  Denmark  west 
of  the  Sound.  In  the  pacification  issued  there, 
King  and  people  promised  to  mutually  aid  each 
other  to  pacify  Denmark.  In  1360  he  recovered 
Scania,  South  Halland,  and  Blekinge  from  Sweden 
by  craftiness  and  sharp  practice.  He  now  became 
master  of  the  herring  fisheries  in  the  Sound,  off 
Skanor  and  Falsterbo,  where  forty  thousand  boats 
and  three  hundred  thousand  fishermen  were 
stationed  to  catch  and  salt  the  Lenten  fare,  a 
new  and  rich  source  of  revenue  for  the  Danish 
Crown. 

A  contemporary  crusader,  the  French  nobleman 
Philippe  de  Maizieres,  has  described  these  fisheries : 
"As  God  hath  commanded,  the  herring  pass,  yet 


36  The  Story  of  Denmark 

only  for  two  months  in  the  year,  namely,  Septem- 
ber and  October,  from  one  sea  to  the  other, 
through  the  Sound,  in  such  multitudes  that  it  is 
a  great  miracle,  and  so  many  that  in  several  places 
in  this  Sound,  fifteen  leagues  in  length,  one  may 
cut  them  in  two  with  a  sword.  The  second 
miracle  is  that  forty  thousand  boats  with  crews 
of  six  to  ten  men,  from  all  Germany  and  Prussia, 
gather  here  solely  to  fish  herring  for  two  months. 
Also  five  hundred  large  ships  do  nothing  but  salt 
the  herring  in  barrels.  ...  At  the  end  of  these 
two  months  not  a  boat  or  a  herring  will  be  found 
in  the  Sound.  It  takes  many  to  catch  so  small  a 
fish,  over  three  hundred  thousand  men  do  nothing 
else  for  two  months.  ...  I  wrote  this  so  that 
God's  grace  to  Christendom  manifested  in  the 
abundance  of  herring  for  Lent  might  be  recognized, 
for  poor  people  can  buy  a  herring  but  not  big  fish." 
The  Crown  revenue  from  the  Scanian  fisheries  was 
larger  than  all  the  other  revenues  of  the  Crown. 

In  July,  1 36 1,  Valdemar  took  Visby,  the  proud 
Hansa  town  in  Gotland,  with  its  forty-eight 
towers  rising  from  the  city  walls  and  an  immense 
booty  in  gold  and  silver.  He  then  assumed  the 
title  of  the  King  of  the  Goths,  which  all  his  suc- 
cessors on  the  Danish  throne  have  borne.  The 
conquest  of  Gotland  led  to  war  with  the  Hansa 
League,  but  their  fleet  was  beaten  by  Valdemar 
off  Helsingborg,  1362.  In  the  winter  of  1367-68 
a  formidable  coalition  of  seventy-seven  Hansa 
cities, — seventy-seven   geese   as  Valdemar  called 


Valdemar  Atterdag  37 

them  derisively, — Sweden,  Mecklenburg,  and 
Hoist ein  agreed  to  divide  Denmark  while,  at  the 
same  time,  the  Jutish  nobility  rose  in  arms.  Val- 
demar went  abroad  for  over  three  years  (1367-71) 
and  left  the  Royal  Council  to  avert  the  danger. 
Peace  was  made  at  Stralsund  (1370)  on  humiliat- 
ing conditions.  The  Hansa  acquired  the  revenues 
of  West  Scania  for  sixteen  years  and  no  King  of 
Denmark  must  be  elected  without  their  consent. 
Valdemar  recovered  nearly  all  Slesvig  before  his 
death,  October  24,  1375.  His  surname,  Atterdag, 
springs  from  a  Low  German  oath  he  often  used, 
"atterdage,  des  dages"  (i.  e.,  by  George!);  it  was 
symbolic,  for  with  him  it  became  "day  again" 
in  Denmark,  which  he  restored  to  its  pristine  'State. 
With  him  the  male  line  of  Sven  Estrithson  'be- 
came extinct,  and  his  daughter,  the  twenty-two- 
year-old  Margaret  (Margrete),  the  Queen  of 
Hakon  VI  of  Norway,  procured  the  election  as 
King  of  Denmark  of  her  five-year-old  son  Oluf 
in  1376,  to  the  exclusion  of  Albrecht  of  Mecklen- 
burg, the  son  of  an  elder  daughter  of  Valdemar. 
While  she  was  occupied  in  resisting  the  claims  of 
his  grandfather,  Duke  Albrecht  of  Mecklenburg, 
the  Counts  of  Holstein  seized  Slesvig. 


CHAPTER  VII 

QUEEN  MARGARET — THE  KALMAR  UNION — THE 
OLDENBURG  DYNASTY 

At  once  on  her  accession  Margaret  comes  forward 
as  a  ripe  political  genius  whose  iron  will  and  patient 
tenacity  overcome  all  difficulties.  Married  at 
ten,  in  1363,  to  the  much  older  Hakon  VI,  she 
was  sent  to  Norway,  thirteen  years  old,  to  be  edu- 
cated by  Merete  Ulf's  daughter,  a  daughter  of 
the  famous  St.  Birgitta.  In  1370,  at  seventeen, 
she  gave  birth  to  her  only  child,  Oluf.  An  acci- 
dentally preserved  letter  written  by  her  at  the 
age  of  nineteen  to  her  husband  shows  that  already 
then  she  had  her  way  not  only  in  Court  matters 
but  in  government  affairs.  Her  genius  was  pre- 
cocious. On  the  death  of  Hakon  VI  (1380),  Oluf 
succeeded  him  as  King  of  Norway,  and  thus  united 
Denmark  and  Norway.  They  remained  united 
till  18 14 — 434  years.  Margaret  now  seized  the 
reins  of  government  as  regent  in  both  kingdoms. 
She  compelled  the  Hansa  League  to  surrender 
their  strongholds  in  Scania.  In  1385  her  son  Oluf 
came  of  age,  being  fifteen  years  old,  and  she  made 
him   assume   the   title    "true   heir   to   Sweden." 

38 


Queen  Margaret  39 

This  was  a  hostile  act  against  King  Albrecht  of 
Sweden.  She  conciliated  the  Counts  of  Holstein 
by  offering  them  Slesvig,  which  they  had  already 
seized,  as  a  hereditary  fief,  and  they  recognized 
her  as  their  suzerain,  1386.  Oluf  died  suddenly, 
1387.  She  was  at  once  elected  "Our  Sovereign 
Lady,  the  Guardian  of  the  Realm,"  in  Denmark, 
and  in  1388  in  Norway.  Hereafter  she  ruled  in 
her  own  name  as  "The  Right  Heir  and  Princess 
of  Denmark."  The  discontented  Swedish  noble- 
men and  State  Councillors  met  her  and  elected 
her  "Sovereign  Lady  of  Sweden,"  on  very  onerous 
conditions  for  themselves.  King  Albrecht  was 
made  prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Falkoping,  1389. 
Sweden  lay  at  her  feet.  ' '  God  gave  an  unexpected 
victory  into  the  hands  of  a  woman,"  says  a  con- 
temporary chronicle.  "All  the  nobility  of  Den- 
mark were  seized  by  fear  of  the  wisdom  and 
strength  of  this  lady,"  says  the  Chronicle  of  Det- 
mar.  The  childless  Queen,  whose  authority  should 
have  vanished  at  the  death  of  her  son,  now  ruled 
the  largest  monarchy  in  Europe. 

Since  the  royal  power  was  the  link  that  held  her 
three  kingdoms  together,  her  aim  was  to  make  it 
as  strong  as  possible.  She  had  her  grand-nephew, 
the  son  of  her  sister's  daughter,  Eric  of  Pomerania, 
proclaimed  King  of  Norway,  1389,  at  the  age  of 
seven,  and  elected  King  of  Denmark  and  Sweden, 
respectively,  in  1396.  She  curbed  the  power  of 
the  State  Council  and  of  the  nobility.  She  bent 
her  energies  to  recover  the  Crown-lands  in  Den- 


40  The  Story  of  Denmark 

mark  and  in  Sweden.  At  the  assembly  of  Nyko- 
ping,  1396,  the  Swedish  nobles  consented  to  give 
up  all  Crown-lands  acquired  by  them  since  1363 
and  to  pull  down  all  strongholds  built  by  them 
since  that  date.  The  Danish  nobility  gave  up  all 
Crown-lands  acquired  since  1368.  She  left  the 
highest  offices  of  state  vacant  and  moved  about 
her  kingdoms  to  see  to  the  right  administering 
of  law  and  justice  herself,  gathering  all  au- 
thority in  her  own  person.  She  introduced 
new  silver  coins,  "Sterlings"  or  "English," 
which  ousted  the  debased  copper  coins  then 
current. 

In  June,  1397,  she  summoned  a  meeting  of  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  lords  of  the  three  king- 
doms at  Kalmar.  On  Trinity  Sunday,  June  17th, 
Eric  was  crowned  as  King  of  Denmark,  Sweden, 
and  Norway  by  the  Archbishops  of  Lund  and 
Uppsala.  It  was  symbolic  of  the  union  between 
the  three  kingdoms  that  he  was  crowned  simul- 
taneously King  of  them  all.  Thereupon  the  lords 
assembled  sat  for  weeks  to  draw  up  the  conditions 
of  the  union  of  the  three  kingdoms.  The  result 
of  their  deliberations  was  two  documents.  One 
dated  July  13th  testified  to  the  coronation  and 
did  homage  to  the  King,  Eric.  This  was  on  parch- 
ment with  seals  attached,  while  the  second  docu- 
ment, drawn  up  on  July  20th,  was  only  a  draft, 
written  on  paper  and  never  ratified.  Of  the 
seventeen  State  Councillors  who  are  said  to  have 
issued  this  draft  only  ten  have  put  their  seals  to 


Queen  Margaret  41 

it,  seven  Swedes,  three  Danes,  and  no  Norwegians. 
It  was  to  this  effect: 

There  shall  be  eternal  and  unbroken  peace  and 
union  between  the  three  kingdoms  under  one 
sovereign.  Should  their  sovereign  leave  sons, 
one  of  them  shall  be  elected  King.  Should  he  die 
without  issue  the  State  Councillors  of  the  three 
kingdoms  shall  meet  and  elect  his  successor.  If 
one  kingdom  should  be  attacked  the  two  others 
shall  defend  it  with  all  their  forces.  The  King 
with  his  State  Councillors  of  the  three  kingdoms 
shall  have  the  right  to  conclude  foreign  alliances 
and  make  decisions  binding  on  all  three  kingdoms. 
Each  kingdom  shall  be  governed  in  accordance 
with  its  own  laws  and  privileges,  no  law  or  privilege 
to  be  withheld  from  one  kingdom  to  the  advantage 
of  the  other. 

Margaret  herself  was  not  anxious  to  have  this 
draft  ratified,  as  it  decreased  the  authority  she 
had  already  acquired  in  Sweden  and  Norway. 
Danes  and  Germans  held  fiefs  and  high  offices  in 
Sweden  and  Norway  contrary  to  the  stipulation 
that  in  each  kingdom  only  natives  should  hold 
them.  Margaret  gave  Swedish  fiefs  to  Danish 
noblemen  as  she  could  not  trust  the  Swedish 
nobility,  and  she  desired  that  the  succession 
should  be  hereditary  in  Denmark  and  Sweden 
as  it  was  in  Norway.  Thus  it  was  only  Den- 
mark that  gained  by  the  Union  of  Kalmar. 
It  was  a  dynastic  union,  not  a  union  of  three 
nations,     and     Denmark    had    the    supremacy. 


42  The  Story  of  Denmark 

The  three  kingdoms  were  governed  as  one 
State. 

No  monarchy  in  Europe  equalled  in  extent  Mar- 
garet's empire,  which  stretched  from  the  Gulf  of 
Finland  to  the  Varanger  Fiord  on  the  Polar  Seas 
and  southward  to  the  Eider,  with  the  islands  of 
Orkney,  Shetland,  Faroe,  Iceland,  and  Greenland 
in  the  Atlantic.  It  embraced  twice  the  area  of 
the  German  Empire. 

Margaret  bought  Gotland  from  the  Teutonic 
Knights  in  1408  and  set  King  Eric  to  govern  the 
island;  he  had  married,  in  1406,  Philippa,  the 
thirteen-year-old  daughter  of  Henry  V.  Eric  was 
given  a  share  in  the  government,  but  he  turned 
out  to  be  rash,  violent,  and  obstinate. 

Gerhard,  Count  of  Holstein,  who  had  been 
vested  with  the  duchy  of  Slesvig,  1386,  was  killed 
in  fighting  the  Ditmarsken  peasants,  1404,  and 
left  three  infant  sons  whose  guardianship,  with 
the  administration  of  the  duchy,  gave  rise  to 
disputes  between  his  widow  and  his  brother. 
Margaret  used  this  family  feud  to  recover  Slesvig, 
partly  by  purchase  and  barter,  but  the  impatience 
of  Eric  caused  a  war  with  Holstein,  1410,  which 
lasted  till  1435.  Margaret  was  mediating  when 
she  died  on  board  her  ship  in  Flensborg  Harbour, 
October  28,  1413,  four  days  after  she  had  received 
the  homage  of  the  citizens  of  Flensborg.  Her 
patient  policy  and  strenuous  statesmanship  suc- 
ceeded where  her  predecessors  and  successors  on 
the   throne   failed.     By   her   womanly   tact   she 


Queen  Margaret  43 

bent  the  defiant  and  mutinous  nobles  to  her  will, 
and  the  common  people,  though  heavily  taxed, 
got  justice.  Deeply  religious  as  she  was,  yet  the 
Church  had  to  give  back  ill-gotten  goods.  Less 
brilliant  than  Queen  Elizabeth,  she  is  a  ruler  of 
the  same  type,  a  virile  intellect,  yet  with  all  the 
subtlety  and  accomplishments  of  her  own  sex. 
She  had  a  dark  complexion  and  was  somewhat 
masculine  in  appearance.  Her  policy  aimed  at 
weakening  the  power  of  the  nobility  by  the  help 
of  the  Church.  She  worked  for  the  canonization 
of  St.  Birgitta,  and  inscribed  herself  in  the  Vad- 
stena  Convent  as  one  of  the  Birgittine  sisters. 

Eric  continued  the  war  in  Slesvig,  but  with 
little  success.  As  he  tried  to  break  the  commercial 
monopoly  of  the  Hanseates  by  favouring  the  Eng- 
lish at  their  cost,  and  as  he  claimed  dues  at  Elsi- 
nore  (where  he  built  a  stronghold,  Krogen,  to 
command  the  passage)  from  ships  passing  through 
the  Sound,  thus  introducing  the  Sound  Tolls, 
1425,  the  Hansa  cities  joined  his  enemies.  He 
recovered  Copenhagen  (then  Copmanhaven)  from 
the  Bishop  of  Roskilde,  1416,  gave  it  a  charter, 
1422,  and  often  resided  there.  His  queen,  Philippa, 
a  sister  of  the  victor  of  Azincourt,  acted  as  regent 
in  his  absence,  1423-25.  She  showed  her  brother's 
courage  in  repulsing  a  Hanseatic  attack  on  Copen- 
hagen, 1428.  She  was  inscribed  as  a  Birgittine 
sister  in  Vadstena  Convent,  where  she  died  child- 
less in  1430  and  where  she  is  buried.  Discontent 
with  the  heavy  taxation  and  misrule  of  Eric  now 


44  The  Story  of  Denmark 

began  to  grow  louder.  As  all  his  three  kingdoms 
were  seething  with  discontent,  he  departed  in  dis- 
gust, 1438,  and  settled  with  his  favourite  mistress 
in  Visborg  Castle  in  Gotland,  where  he  lived  ten 
years,  chiefly  by  piracy.  Handing  Gotland  over 
to  Denmark,  1449,  he  spent  his  last  ten  years  in 
Pomerania,  where  he  died  1459. 

Denmark  elected  his  nephew,  Christopher  of 
Bavaria,  King;  Sweden  elected  him  in  1440,  Nor- 
way in  1442.  Though  he  was  crowned  separately 
in  each  kingdom,  the  Kalmar  Union  was  thus 
renewed.  He  repressed  peasant  risings  in  Jutland 
with  severity,  and  the  Danish  peasantry  gradu- 
ally sank  into  a  kind  of  villenage  or  serfdom,  the 
"Vornedskab,"  for  the  oppression  grew  worse 
after  every  rising.  He  was  known  in  Sweden  as 
the  "Bark  King,"  for  the  peasantry  were  com- 
pelled to  mix  birch  bark  in  their  bread  during  a 
famine  in  his  reign.  He  made  Copenhagen  the 
permanent  royal  residence  after  1 443.  To  com- 
plaints of  the  piracy  of  Eric  in  Gotland  he  an- 
swered, "My  uncle  must  live,  too." 

On  Christopher's  death  (1448)  the  Crown  was 
offered  to  Duke  Adolphus  of  Slesvig,  who  trans- 
ferred it  to  his  nephew,  Count  Christian  of  Olden- 
burg, descended  through  his  mother  from  Eric 
Klipping.  Christian  I  married  Dorothy  of  Bran- 
denburg, the  widow  of  his  predecessor.  The 
Kalmar  Union  was  dissolved,  though  it  continued 
to  exist  nominally  till  1523.  Karl  Knutsson,  King 
of  Sweden,  was  King  of  Norway,  too,  November, 


The  Oldenburg  Dynasty  45 

1449,  to  May,  1450,  when  the  State  Councillors 
of  Denmark  and  Sweden  agreed  that  Norway- 
should  fall  to  Christian  I.  The  Norwegian  and 
Danish  Councillors  signed  a  compact  at  Bergen, 

1450,  that  Denmark  and  Norway  should  hereafter 
be  for  ever  united  under  one  king.  They  remained 
united  till  1 8 14.  Christian  I  was  King  of  Sweden 
1457-64,  but  his  defeat  at  Brunkeberg,  1471, 
lost  him  Sweden,  where  he  was  nicknamed  the 
"Bottomless  Purse."  On  the  death  of  Duke 
Adolphus,  the  male  line  of  the  Holstein  Counts 
became  extinct,  1459.  Christian  I  was  elected 
Duke  of  Slesvig  and  Count  of  Holstein  on  March 
5th  at  Ribe.  He  promulgated  first  at  Ribe, 
then  at  Kiel,  a  constitution  or  charter  of  privi- 
leges. He  conceded  to  the  Estates  the  right  to 
refuse  to  elect  any  Danish  prince  who  should  not 
undertake  to  confirm  their  privileges,  while  they 
bound  themselves  to  elect  one  of  his  heirs.  He 
promised  to  keep  these  countries  in  peace  and 
that  they  remain  for  ever  united  and  undivided 
(unde  dat  se  bliuen  ewich  tosamende  ungedelt,  in  the 
Low  German  original).  Thus  the  union  between 
Slesvig  and  Holstein  was  officially  recognized  by 
Denmark  though  Holstein  continued  to  be  a  Ger- 
man, Slesvig  a  Danish  fief.  Christian  has  been 
blamed  for  not  incorporating  Slesvig  in  Denmark, 
but  his  contemporaries  praised  him  for  acquiring 
Holstein.  In  1474  Christian  went  on  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Rome,  accompanied  by  150  nobles  and 
knights.     At  Rothenburg  he  met  the  Emperor, 


46  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Frederick  III,  who  erected  Holstein,  Stormarn, 
and  Ditmarsken  into  a  duchy.  The  free  peasants 
of  Ditmarsken  were  not  subdued  till  1559. 

The  Hanseates  monopolized  the  entire  com- 
merce of  Norway,  chiefly  through  their  great 
factory  at  Bergen,  where  they  were  governed  by 
their  own  statutes.  Their  overbearing  behaviour 
culminated  in  1455,  when  the  Governor  of  Bergen 
took  sanctuary  against  them  in  a  famous  monas- 
tery, which  they  burnt  down,  and  killed  him  and 
the  Bishop  of  Bergen.  This  outrage  Christian 
dared  not  punish,  and,  on  the  contrary,  renewed 
their  monopoly  and  prohibited  their  rivals,  the 
English  and  the  Flemings,  from  trading  in  Ice- 
land and  North  Norway.  On  the  marriage  of  his 
only  daughter,  Margaret,  to  James  III  of  Scot- 
land, 1469,  he  agreed  to  remit  the  arrears  of  the 
quit-rent  due  to  Norway  for  the  Hebrides  and  to 
pay  a  dowry  of  sixty  thousand  Rhenish  florins, 
as  a  security  for  which  he  pledged  to  James  first 
the  Orkneys,  then  Shetland.  The  dowry  was 
never  paid,  but  the  claims  of  Denmark-Norway 
to  redeem  the  islands  were  from  time  to  time 
reasserted.  Queen  Dorothy  got  the  papal  per- 
mission at  Rome  to  establish  a  university  at 
Copenhagen,  which  was  inaugurated  in  1479. 

King  Hans  (1481-1513)  shared  Slesvig  and 
Holstein  with  his  brother  Frederic,  and  succeeded 
in  Denmark,  but  not  in  Norway  till  1483,  when 
he  had  to  extend  the  privileges  of  the  aristocracy. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CHRISTIAN  II 

Christian  II  (Christiern,  as  he  signed  himself, 
like  Christian  I)  (1513-23)  was  possessed  of  un- 
common intellectual  powers,  of  courage  and 
energy,  of  great  statesmanlike  ideas,  of  strong 
sympathies  with  the  common  people.  But  his 
fine  qualities  were  vitiated  by  the  crafty  cruelty 
and  revengeful  suspiciousness  ingrained  in  his 
character.  As  viceroy  of  Norway  (1506-12),  he 
had  shown  much  ability.  He  stamped  out  re- 
bellion with  severity,  replaced  Norwegians  by 
Danes  in  high  office,  curbed  the  insolence  of  the 
Hanseates  at  Bergen  and  curtailed  their  privi- 
leges. It  was  at  Bergen  that  he  met  the  beautiful 
Dutch  maiden,  Dyveke  (i.  e.,  little  dove),  at  a 
ball  which  he  gave  to  the  city.  He  danced  with 
her  all  the  evening  and  fell  in  love  head  over  ears. 
"In  that  dance  he  danced  away  the  three  king- 
doms of  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,"  says 
the  Chronicle  of  Arild  Huitfeldt.  Dyveke's 
mother,  Sigbrit,  possessed  striking  sagacity  and 
common  sense.  The  viceroy  established  them 
both  at  Oslo,  the  capital  of  Norway,  and  when 

47 


48  The  Story  of  Denmark 

he  ascended  the  throne,  they  moved  to  Copen- 
hagen. 

He  had  to  subscribe,  first,  the  charter  submitted 
to  him  by  the  joint  Councils  of  Denmark  and 
Norway:  the  Crown  to  be  elective,  not  hereditary, 
in  both  kingdoms;  the  privileges  of  the  nobility 
to  be  extended  and  all  the  higher  offices  of  State 
to  be  held  by  them:  should  the  King  break  the 
charter  and  then  refuse  to  listen  to  the  "instruc- 
tions" of  the  Council,  it  should  have  the  right  to 
take  action  (i.  e.,  to  coerce  him).  Christian  had, 
also,  before  his  accession,  to  receive  absolution, 
kneeling  down  in  church  before  the  bishops,  for 
the  crime  of  keeping  the  Norwegian  Bishop  of 
Hamar  in  prison.  To  ensure  the  succession  and 
to  satisfy  his  ambition,  Christian  negotiated  a 
marriage  with  a  princess  of  the  Imperial  House  of 
Habsburg,  Isabella  of  Burgundy,  a  granddaughter 
of  the  ]  Emperor  Maximilian,  who  promised  a 
dowry  of  250,000  florins,  the  greater  part  of  which 
was  never  paid.  Christian  was  married  by  proxy 
to  his  thirteen-year-old  bride  at  Brussels,  15 14, 
and  in  15 15  the  Archbishop  of  Norway  sailed  with 
a  fleet  to  escort  her  to  Denmark.  Meanwhile, 
news  had  reached  Brussels  of  the  liaison  with 
Dyveke,  and  negotiations  with  reference  to  King 
Christian  sending  her  away  took  place  between 
the  Archbishop  and  the  Queen's  tutor,  the  later 
Pope  Adrian  VI.  The  marriage  was  solemnized 
at  Copenhagen  in  August,  15 15,  and  though  the 
Queen  was  twenty  years  younger  than  her  hus- 


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Christian  II  49 

band,  she  was  a  good  wife  to  him  in  his  evil  days. 
Dyveke  had  only  been  moved  a  few  miles  out  of 
Copenhagen,  and  in  151 6  the  Emperor  demanded 
that  she  should  be  sent  out  of  the  kingdom,  but 
Christian  defiantly  sent  the  Queen's  Dutch  Court 
ladies  back  to  the  Netherlands,  and  installed 
Dyveke  and  Sigbrit  in  Copenhagen  in  a  house 
near  the  royal  residence.  Dyveke  died  suddenly 
at  Elsinore,  in  15 17.  There  was  a  suspicion  that 
she  had  been  poisoned  by  some  cherries  sent  her 
by  Torben  Oxe,  the  Governor  of  Copenhagen 
Castle — in  revenge,  it  was  said,  for  her  rejection 
of  his  advances.  He  was  only  arrested  by  the 
King's  order,  to  be  acquitted  by  his  peers  in  the 
State  Council.  "If  I  had  as  many  kinsmen  in 
the  Council  as  he  has,  he  would  never  have  been 
acquitted,"  Christian  burst  out  in  hot  anger.  A 
court  of  twelve  peasants  then  declared,  "Not  we 
but  Torben's  own  deeds  find  him  guilty,"  and 
death  was  the  penalty.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
whole  State  Council,  the  bishops  with  the  papal 
legate  at  their  head,  even  the  Queen  at  the  head 
of  the  noble  ladies  of  the  land  pleaded  for  the 
prisoner's  life,  on  their  knees,  before  the  King. 
Torben's  head  fell  on  November  29,  15 17.  His 
execution  signifies  a  breach  between  King  and 
aristocracy.  Henceforth  Sigbrit  was  his  chief 
adviser.  She  hated  the  privileged  classes.  She 
was  an  administrative  genius.  She  had  studied 
alchemy  and  medicine,  and  acted  as  midwife 
when  the  Queen  gave  birth  to  her  first  son.     Like 


50  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Paracelsus,  she  believed  herself  to  possess  tele- 
pathic powers,  and  "the  King  must  do  all  she 
wanted  if  he  was  within  fifty  miles."  No  wonder 
that  she  was  looked  upon  as  a  sorceress  whose 
armoury  of  bottles  was  filled  with  evil  spirits. 
The  King  appointed  her  Controller  of  the  Sound 
dues,  and  soon  she  took  charge  of  the  exchequer, 
in  which  capacity  she  displayed  abilities  of  the 
highest  order.  She  favoured  her  own  class  at 
the  expense  of  the  aristocracy,  and  formed  with 
her  circle  an  inner  council  more  influential  than 
the  State  Council.  Bitterly  as  the  nobles  hated 
her  and  her  coarse  mother-wit  the  breach  with 
them  would  have  come  to  a  head  but  for  the  war 
in  Sweden. 

An  old,  bitter  family  feud  existed  between 
Sten  Sture,  the  Regent  of  Sweden,  and  Gustavus 
Trolle,  the  Archbishop-elect  of  Uppsala;  the  latter 
refused  to  do  homage  to  Sture,  and  entered  into 
secret  correspondence  with  Christian  II.  Sture 
laid  siege  to  the  Archbishop's  castle,  Stake,  and 
defeated  the  army  sent  by  Christian  to  relieve  it. 
In  15 1 7,  an  assembly  of  nobles  at  Stockholm 
decreed  that  the  Archbishop  should  be  deposed 
for  high  treason,  and  Stake  be  razed  to  the  ground. 
The  nobles  present  declared  themselves  jointly 
responsible  for  this  decree.  Each  of  them  sealed 
it  with  his  seal.  The  Bishop  of  Linkoping,  Hans 
Brask,  however,  cautiously  put  a  slip,  on  which  he 
had  written:  "To  this  I  am  forced  and  compelled," 
under  his  wax  seal.     The  Archbishop's  stronghold, 


Christian  II  51 

Stake,  was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  he  himself 
was  ignominiously  imprisoned  in  a  monastery. 
In  the  summer  of  1518  Christian  II  landed  with  a 
strong  army  and  besieged  Stockholm.  Sten  Sture 
defeated  him  in  the  battle  of  Brannkyrka,  at 
which  his  young  kinsman,  Gustaf  Eriksson  Vasa, 
carried  Sture's  victorious  standard.  After  a 
fruitless  six  weeks'  siege  of  Stockholm,  Christian 
entered  on  negotiations.  He  invited  Sture  to 
meet  himself  on  board  his  fleet.  When  Sture 
refused,  suspecting  treachery,  King  Christian 
offered  to  meet  him  ashore,  on  condition  that  six 
Swedish  nobles  were  sent  on  board  as  hostages, 
Gustaf  Vasa  and  Hemming  Gad  to  be  included 
among  these.  Sture  sent  the  hostages,  but  he 
awaited  the  King's  appearance  in  vain.  King 
Christian  treated  his  hostages  as  prisoners,  and 
sailed  for  Denmark.  A  papal  legate,  Arcimbol- 
dus,  came  to  Scandinavia  and  collected  money 
for  the  building  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  by  the 
sale  of  indulgences.  At  the  assembly  of  Arboga, 
Sweden,  15 18,  he  tried  to  mediate  between  King 
Christian  and  Sture,  but  those  assembled  declared 
unanimously  that  they  refused  to  treat  with  a 
man  who  had  broken  "a  solemn  compact  which 
the  very  heathen  used  to  respect."  Whereupon 
Arcimboldus  deposed  the  Archbishop  in  favour  of 
himself,  and  was  elected  by  the  chapter  at  Upp- 
sala. Meanwhile  he  got  the  news  that  King 
Christian  had  confiscated  the  large  sum  of  indul- 
gence money  he  had  left  in  Denmark,  and  ordered 


52  The  Story  of  Denmark 

his  arrest,  after  his  secretary,  Didrik  Slagheck, 
had  informed  Sigbrit  of  all  his  master's  doings  in 
Sweden,  and  even  entered  the  King's  service. 
The  Pope,  indignant  at  the  deposition  of  the  Arch- 
bishop, excommunicated  Sture  and  his  men  and 
laid  an  interdict  on  Sweden,  to  be  enforced  by 
Christian,  at  his  own  suggestion.  Arcimboldus 
fled  to  Liibeck,  where  he  found  the  papal  Bull 
nailed  on  the  church  doors,  but  he  succeeded  in 
clearing  himself  at  Rome,  and  died  as  Archbishop 
of  Milan. 

Christian  II  made  great  exertions  in  fitting  out 
his  third  expedition  against  Sweden;  he  borrowed 
money,  collected  new  taxes,  and  claimed  part  of 
the  dowry  due  to  him  through  his  marriage  with 
the  sister  of  Charles  V.  His  huge  army,  mainly 
German  mercenaries,  included  two  thousand 
Frenchmen  and  two  thousand  Scotchmen.  This 
time  he  wanted  to  ensure  the  subjection  of  Sweden. 
He  crossed  the  border  soon  after  New  Year,  1520, 
and  the  Bull  of  excommunication  which  he  was 
called  upon  to  execute  as  the  representative  of  the 
temporal  power  was  nailed  on  the  church  doors 
as  he  proceeded.  In  a  battle  near  Bogesund,  on 
the  frozen  Lake  Asunden,  Sture  riding  at  the 
head  of  his  army  was  mortally  wounded  in  the 
thigh  by  a  bullet  at  the  first  onset.  His  leaderless 
men  stood  at  bay  manfully,  and  defended  the 
forest  passes  behind  felled  timber,  but  had  to  fall 
back  before  superior  forces.  Sture  himself  died 
on  February  3,   1 520,  while  crossing  the  ice  of 


Christian  II  53 

Lake  Malaren  in  his  sledge  on  his  way  to  Stock- 
holm. In  the  confusion  that  followed,  some 
noblemen  in  the  Council  decided  to  negotiate 
with,  and  do  homage  to,  Christian.  But  Sture's 
young  widow,  Christina  Gyllenstierna,  did  not 
lose  heart;  she  rallied  all  patriots,  took  command 
of  Stockholm  Castle,  and  fired  the  defenders  of 
the  city  with  her  splendid  courage.  The  Danish 
army  ravaged  the  country,  and  as  it  approached 
Uppsala,  Archbishop  Trolle  and  nine  members  of 
the  Council  sitting  there  did  homage  to  Christian 
II  as  representatives  of  all  Sweden.  The  Danish 
generals,  empowered  to  act  for  their  King,  granted 
in  return  full  indemnity  and  forgiveness  for  the 
past.  /The  King  would  govern  Sweden  according 
to  old  Swedish  customs,  laws,  and  liberties.  This 
vaguely  worded  indemnity  was  ratified  by  Chris- 
tian II,  but  no  reference  was  made  in  it  to  crimes 
against  the  Archbishop  and  the  Church.  Whether 
this  loophole  was  intentional  or  not  will  never 
be  known.  Christina  refused  to  agree  to  this 
surrender,  and  at  her  fiery  words  the  sturdy 
peasants  rose  to  expel  the  invader.  The  Danes 
suffered  losses  here  and  there,  and  on  Good 
Friday  the  peasants  routed  their  main  army  near 
Uppsala.  In  the  bitter  struggle  the  Danish 
commander-in-chief  and  some  of  his  generals 
were  repeatedly  wounded.  Secure,  the  peasants 
set  about  plundering  Uppsala,  when  the  Danes 
rallied  and  cut  them  down.  Thousands  of  dead 
peasants  covered  the  fields  by  the  Fyris  River, 


54  The  Story  of  Denmark 

but  their  own  Archbishop  would  not  have  them 
buried,  as  they  were  heretics  and  his  enemies,  while 
honourable  burial  was  given  to  all  the  dead  Danes. 
In  the  spring  Christian  laid  siege  to  Stockholm 
by  sea  and  land.  Christina  made  a  spirited  re- 
sistance all  summer,  and  when  the  autumn  storms 
began  Christian  was  willing  to  negotiate  and  to 
grant  terms.  Her  demand  was  a  detailed,  explicit, 
and  absolute  amnesty,  to  cover  all  acts  committed 
by  the  Stures  and  those  named  in  it.  On  these 
conditions  the  City  Council,  on  September  7th, 
surrendered  the  keys  of  Stockholm  to  King  Chris- 
tian. He  made  a  triumphal  entry,  and  after  a 
short  visit  to  Denmark  returned  with  his  new  and 
sinister  favourite,  Didrik  Slagheck.  He  sum- 
moned the  Swedish  councillors,  nobles,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  towns  and  provinces  to  Stockholm, 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  attend  his  coro- 
nation. On  the  hill  of  Brunkeberg,  close  by 
Stockholm,  surrounded  by  German  men-at-arms, 
they  swore  allegiance  to  Christian  as  hereditary 
sovereign  of  Sweden.  They  yielded  to  brute  force, 
for  the  Swedish  Constitution  distinctly  provided 
that  the  royal  succession  was  by  election.  On 
November  4th  Christian  was  crowned  and  anointed 
by  Archbishop  Trolle  in  Stockholm  Cathedral. 
In  his  coronation  oath  he  swore  to  defend  the 
Church,  to  love  truth  and  justice,  to  rule  Sweden 
solely  through  Swedish-born  men,  and  to  keep 
the  laws.  A  special  envoy  from  the  Emperor 
Charles  V  invested  the  King  with  the  Order  of 


Christian  II  55 

the  Golden  Fleece  before  the  high  altar  in  the 
Cathedral.  He  wished  to  impress  his  new  sub- 
jects as  an  absolute  monarch  by  God's  grace. 
During  the  great  festivities  of  the  three  following 
days  he  knighted  many  Danes  and  Germans,  but 
his  herald  proclaimed  that  no  Swedes  would  be 
included  since  they  had  fought  against  him. 
Dark  designs  were  in  his  mind,  and  on  Wednes- 
day, November  7th,  "a  banquet  of  another  kind 
began" — as  the  Swedish  reformer,  Olaus  Petri, 
words  it.  The  Senate,  the  City  Council,  Christina 
Gyllenstierna,  the  nobility,  and  the  clergy  were 
all  summoned  to  the  King's  presence  in  the  audi- 
ence hall  of  the  royal  palace.  Here  Archbishop 
Trolle  stepped  before  the  King,  who  was  seated 
on  his  throne;  he  cited  the  words  of  the  corona- 
tion oath:  to  defend  the  Church,  and  demanded 
the  punishment  of  Sture  and  certain  of  his  adher- 
ents as  heretics,  inasmuch  as  they  had  imprisoned 
him  and  two  other  bishops,  razed  his  castle  to  the 
ground,  offered  himself  personal  violence,  and 
compelled  the  priests  to  celebrate  mass  during 
his  imprisonment,  thus  violating  the  canonical 
law.  He  demanded  a  large  sum  as  compensation. 
Christina  then  rose  and  protested  that  the  alleged 
outrages  against  the  Archbishop  and  the  Church 
could  not  be  imputed  solely  to  her  late  husband 
and  the  other  accused,  since  they  were  decreed  by 
a  national  assembly,  all  the  members  of  which  had 
declared  themselves  jointly  responsible.  In  proof 
of  this  Christina  produced  the  decree  of  the  said 


56  The  Story  of  Denmark 

assembly.  It  seemed  to  be  unknown  to  both 
King  and  Archbishop.  It  was  issued  in  the  name 
of  all  Swedish  freemen.  It  was  signed  by  nearly 
all  the  members  of  the  Senate  present  in  the  audi- 
ence hall.  This  document  acted  like  a  bombshell. 
A  storm  of  explanations  and  protests  burst  forth. 
Bishop  Brask  cleared  himself  by  revealing  the 
written  slip  hidden  under  his  wax  seal.  While 
this  went  on  the  King  withdrew.  Probably  it 
was  settled  at  a  secret  conference  in  his  room  which 
persons  were  to  be  arrested.  After  dark  two 
Danish  noblemen,  accompanied  by  armed  sol- 
diers with  lanterns  and  torches,  entered  the 
audience  hall  and  seized,  one  by  one,  all  those 
found  on  the  Archbishop's  list.  They  were  led 
away  and  locked  up.  "We  were  like  a  flock  of 
sheep  led  to  slaughter,"  says  Olaus  Petri.  At 
nine  o'clock  next  morning,  November  8th,  an 
ecclesiastical  court,  sitting  in  the  audience  hall 
and  presided  over  by  the  Archbishop  himself, 
declared  that  the  accused  must  be  held  to  be 
manifest  heretics.  Meanwhile,  Didrik  Slagheck 
was  making  the  necessary  preparations  for  their 
execution.  At  midday  the  prisoners  were  taken 
to  the  Central  Square  and  publicly  beheaded, 
ringed  round  by  the  royal  guards.  They  were 
not  even  permitted  to  see  a  priest.  "The  King 
wished  to  slay  not  only  their  bodies  but  also  their 
souls."  Two  bishops  laid  their  heads  first  on 
the  block,  next  fourteen  noblemen,  three  burgo- 
masters, fourteen  town  councillors  of  Stockholm, 


Christian  II  57 

and  more  than  twenty  of  its  citizens.  The  ex- 
ecutioner stated  that  eighty-two  persons  were 
decapitated  the  first  day,  but  the  executions  con- 
tinued next  day.  The  streets  ran  blood.  The 
bodies  lay  about  unburied  till  Saturday,  when 
they  were  burnt  in  a  heap.  Sten  Sture's  body 
and  that  of  a  child  born  to  him  during  the  inter- 
dict were  taken  out  of  the  grave  and  burnt  too. 
Sacrilege  against  heretics  was'  no  sacrilege  in  the 
eyes  of  the  King.  Christina  Gyllenstierna,  with 
other  noble  ladies,  was  sent  as  prisoner  to  Den- 
mark. Thus  Christian  II  murdered  his  enemies 
under  the  pretence  of  defending  the  Catholic 
Church — which  he  no  longer  believed  in — and  it 
is  the  dishonesty  of  the  Stockholm  Massacre,  as 
it  is  called,  which  is  the  worst  feature  of  it.  In- 
stead of  coming  forward  in  his  true  colours  as  a 
strong  ruler,  striking  off  the  heads  of  turbulent 
and  self-seeking  noblemen  for  the  good  of  the 
common  people,  he  issued  a  proclamation  to  the 
Swedish  people,  saying  that  the  execution  of  these 
heretics  was  necessary  to  prevent  a  new  papal 
interdict.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the  Pope 
that  his  men  had  unearthed  a  conspiracy  against 
his  life,  and  that  the  two  bishops  had  been  killed 
by  mistake.  Contemporaries  laid  the  blame  for 
the  massacre  on  Didrik  Slagheck,  who  was  made 
Bishop  of  Skara,  and,  on  the  King's  return  to 
Denmark,  in  December,  regent  of  Sweden,  with 
a  council  by  his  side,  of  which  Archbishop  Trolle 
was  a  member.     Christian's  journey  home  through 


58  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Sweden  was  marked  by  gallows  and  executions 
en  route.  He  thought  he  had  utterly  cowed  the 
proud  spirit  of  the  Swedish  people,  but  he  had 
only  roused  it  by  his  atrocities.  Among  the 
murdered  noblemen  were  the  father  and  brother- 
in-law  of  Sweden's  future  liberator,  Gustaf  Vasa. 
The  Swedes  rose  and  made  an  end  for  ever  of 
Danish  dominion  in  their  country. 

Didrik  soon  left,  and  Christian  then  made  him 
Archbishop  of  Lund,  but  a  papal  legate  arrived 
soon  after  to  inquire  into  the  murder  of  the  bishops. 
The  King  put  all  the  blame  on  the  new  Archbishop, 
who  was  put  to  the  torture  and  publicly  burnt  in 
Copenhagen. 

From  June  to  September,  1521,  Christian  visited 
the  Netherlands,  where  he  was  welcomed  as  one 
of  the  greatest  of  European  monarchs.  He  was 
deeply  impressed  by  the  high  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  wealthy  Flemish  towns.  It  was  in  a 
talk  with  Erasmus  about  Luther  that  he  declared : 
"Mild  measures  avail  nothing;  the  medicine  that 
gives  the  whole  body  a  good  shaking  is  the  best 
and  surest."  His  brother-in-law,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V,  recognized  his  suzerainty  over  Lubeck 
and  granted  to  him  Holstein  as  a  fief.  It  was  on 
his  return  to  Denmark,  at  the  pinnacle  of  his  power, 
that  he  initiated  his  sweeping  reforms.  A  code 
of  laws  for  towns  and  country  was  published  in 
which  Dutch  influence  is  clearly  visible.  The 
custom  which  prevailed  in  the  islands  "to  sell  and 
buy  Christian  men  [*.  e.,  the  peasants]  as  if  they 


THE    STOCKHOLM    MASSACRE 

Execution   of   the   Bishops 


Christian  II  59 

were  brute  beasts"  was  abolished.  The  transfer 
of  the  peasantry  from  one  feudal  lord  to  another 
without  their  consent  was  prohibited,  and  they 
were  permitted  to  migrate  from  one  manor  to 
another  in  case  of  oppression.  Feudal  lords  were 
forbidden  to  profit  by  shipwrecks.  Such  property 
should,  if  unclaimed,  fall  to  the  Crown.  The 
nobles  and  the  higher  clergy  found  their  privi- 
leges shorn  and  restricted.  Better  education 
was  provided  for  the  lower  clergy.  The  royal 
authority  was  increased  throughout,  in  spite  of 
his  democratization  of  towns  and  trade  guilds. 
The  whole  island  of  Amager  was  leased  to  184 
Dutch  families  to  teach  Denmark  horticulture. 
New  taxes  were  imposed  to  raise  an  army  against 
Sweden.  Discontent  was  rife  and  rampant.  The 
bishops  and  nobles  of  Jutland  formed  a  secret 
league  against  Christian.  In  a  document  drawn 
up  at  Viborg  on  December  21,  1522,  they  declared 
that  his  tyranny  and  misrule  had  cast  the  three 
kingdoms  into  great  misery,  renounced  their 
allegiance,  and  later  offered  the  Crown  to  his 
uncle,  Frederick,  Duke  of  Holstein.  The  King 
negotiated  and  promised  redress  at  an  assembly 
which  he  had  summoned.  The  crisis  of  his  fate 
found  him  weak  and  vacillating  as  if  his  passionate 
outpouring  of  energy  had  exhausted  his  vitality 
in  a  few  years.  To  the  astonishment  of  the  towns 
and  peasantry  which  stuck  to  him  he  embarked 
at  Copenhagen,  April,  1523,  with  his  family, 
Sigbrit,  and  a  few  faithful  adherents,  and  sailed 


60  The  Story  of  Denmark 

for  the  Netherlands  to  seek  the  assistance  of  Charles 
V.  Copenhagen  was  besieged  June  10,  1523,  to 
January  5,  1524,  by  Frederick  I  and  Johan  Rant- 
zau.  For  eight  years  Christian  lived  in  exile, 
vainly  seeking  help  to  recover  his  dominions. 
At  Lier  in  the  Netherlands  he  became  so  poor 
that  he  had  to  pawn  his  jewels,  his  faithful  Queen 
died  in  1526,  and  his  three  children  were  taken 
from  his  custody  to  be  made  Catholics.  By  this 
time  the  Danish  towns  and  peasantry  longed 
sorely  for  his  return.  In  the  words  of  a  ballad  of 
the  time,  the  Eagle  Song,  they  looked  to  the 
"eagle  far  away  in  the  wilderness"  to  protect  them 
against  the  hawks — the  birds  of  prey  that  would 
"pluck  out  their  feathers  and  down,"  i.  e.,  the 
nobles.  The  Norwegian  bishops  called  him  in. 
He  bound  himself  to  Charles  V  to  restore  Catholic- 
ism in  his  kingdoms  in  return  for  ships  and 
money  to  invade  Norway,  whereupon  he  abjured 
his  past  errors  in  the  presence  of  a  papal  legate. 
He  sailed  from  the  Netherlands  with  ten  thousand 
men,  October,  1531,  but  overtaken  by  tempestuous 
weather,  landed  in  Norway  with  less  than  half 
his  force.  Archbishop  Olaf  and  many  nobles 
and  prelates  swore  allegiance  to  him  and  his  son. 
Denmark,  Sweden,  and  the  Hansa  were  united 
against  him.  During  his  fruitless  siege  of  Aker- 
shus,  Bishop  Guildenstern  (Gyldenstjerne)  ar- 
rived with  a  Danish  and  Hanseatic  fleet  and  they 
agreed  at  Oslo  (now  Christiania)  that  Christian 
should  be  escorted  to  Copenhagen,  under  a  safe- 


Christian  II  61 

conduct,  to  negotiate  further  with  his  uncle. 
The  safe-conduct  was  broken,  partly  on  the  pre- 
text that  Guildenstern  had  exceeded  his  instruc- 
tions. As  the  prisoner  of  the  German  and  Danish 
senators  he  was  imprisoned  in  Sonderborg  Castle 
in  the  island  of  Als  in  August,  1532.  Before  the 
outbreak  of  the  "Count's  War"  he  was  literally- 
walled  up  in  solitary  confinement.  Seven  years 
the  lonely  King  whiled  away  mainly  by  walking 
for  hours  round  his  table.  Deep  dints  in  the 
stone  flags  of  the  floor  showed  where  he  stepped. 
After  1540  he  was  better  treated.  He  survived 
two  successors,  Frederick  I  and  Christian  III, 
and  died  at  Kallundborg,  where  he  spent  his  last 
ten  years,  in  1559,  seventy-seven  years  of  age, 
twenty-seven  of  which  he  lived  in  prison. 

He  was  an  enlightened  humanist  who  delighted 
in  long  talks  with  Erasmus  Rotterodamus,  with 
Albrecht  Durer  who  painted  his  portrait,  with 
Lucas  Cranach,  and  with  Luther.  He  and  the 
Queen  became  Lutherans.  He  occupied  himself 
in  translating  the  Old  Testament  from  Luther's 
German  into  Danish,  and  had  the  New  Testament 
translated  into  Danish  by  his  companions,  Hans 
Mikkelsen  and  Chr.  Vinter  in  1524. 

There  was  a  strain  both  of  genius  and  of  mad- 
ness in  his  character.  He  was  centuries  ahead  of 
his  contemporaries  in  his  high  aims  and  great 
designs.  He  wanted  to  make  Copenhagen  a  free 
staple,  the  centre  of  a  Scandinavian  Hansa,  to 
break  the  yoke  of  Lubeck — over  which  he  claimed 


62  The  Story  of  Denmark 

the  suzerainty  of  the  Valdemars — and  the  yoke 
of  the  German  Hansa.  His  policy  fostered  trade 
and  art,  culture  and  agriculture.  He  desired  to 
put  a  benevolent  State  socialism  in  place  of  the 
galling  yoke  of  clergy  and  nobility.  Splendidly 
equipped  as  he  was  with  the  gifts  of  mind  and 
body,  yet  withal  he  was  crafty,  cruel,  obstinate, 
and  suspicious.  He  expiated  his  crimes  during 
the  long  years  when  he  was  eating  out  his  heart, 
first  in  exile  eight  years,  then  in  prison  twenty- 
seven  years,  a  figure  of  more  enthralling  interest 
than  any  that  has  ever  sat  upon  the  throne  of 
Denmark. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  REFORMATION 

On  the  death  of  Fredreick  I,  April,  1533,  the  Pro- 
testants wished  to  elect  his  elder  son,  Duke 
Christian,  a  fervent  Lutheran,  while  the  Catholics 
were  in  favour  of  his  twelve-year-old  brother, 
Duke  Hans.  The  election  was  postponed  till 
the  summer  of  1534  to  consult  the  Norwegian 
Council.  About  this  time  the  Lutheran  demo- 
cracy at  Lubeck  got  the  upper  hand  and  elected 
Jurgen  Wullenwe^er  burgomaster.  This  ambi- 
tious statesman  planrfed  to  dominate  all  the  Scan- 
dinavian kingdoms  and  dismember  Denmark, 
which  was  threatened  with  anarchy  and  civil  war. 
He  allied  himself  with  the  leaders  of  the  burgesses 
and  peasants,  the  burgomasters  of  Copenhagen  and 
Malmo,  nominally  in  order  to  reinstate  Christian 
II,  whose  kinsman,  Count  Christopher  of  Olden- 
burg, was  engaged  as  commander-in-chief;  after 
him  the  war  is  called  "the  Count's  War."  In  a 
few  weeks  this  military  adventurer  made  himself 
easily  master  of  all  Eastern  Denmark,  in  June 
and  July,  1534,  while  an  assembly  of  nobles  in 
Jutland   elected  Duke  Christian  of  Holstein  King 

63 


64  The  Story  of  Denmark 

as  Christian  III  in  July,  1534.  Sweden  was  Chris- 
tian's ally  against  Liibeck.  The  Jutland  peasants 
rose  under  Skipper  Clement  and  defeated  the 
Danish  nobles  at  Svenstrup,  October,  1534,  but 
the  able  general,  Johan  Rantzau,  reconquered 
Jutland  in  one  month  and  stormed  Aalborg,  where 
he  put  two  thousand  peasants  to  the  sword,  De- 
cember 18,  1534.  The  yeomen  were  reduced  to 
bondage  and  became  tenants.  Skipper  Clement 
was  executed.  Christian  III  was  proclaimed 
King  at  Viborg  in  March,  1535.  Rantzau  wholly 
defeated  Count  Christopher's  army  in  the  battle 
of  Oxnebjaerg  in  Funen,  in  which  Archbishop 
Trolle  was  mortally  wounded,  June,  1535.  The 
Dano-Swedish  fleet  under  Peder  Skram  annihi- 
lated a  Liibeck  fleet,  and  Christian  III  could  now 
cross  to  Sjaelland  and  lay  siege  to  Copenhagen, 
July,  1535.  Liibeck,  after  these  disasters,  rein- 
stated the  old  patricians  in  place  of  Wullenwever, 
and,  by  the  Treaty  of  Hamburg,  February,  1536, 
recognized  the  title  of  Christian  III  to  the  Crown. 
Copenhagen  held  out  stubbornly,  expecting  suc- 
cour from  the  son-in-law  of  Christian  II,  the  Count 
Palatine,  and  from  Charles  V.  After  suffering 
all  the  horrors  of  a  famine,  Copenhagen  surren- 
dered on  July  29,  1536,  after  a  twelve  months' 
siege,  July  18,  1535,  to  July  29,  1536.  Walking 
bareheaded  on  foot  with  white  staffs  in  their 
hands  to  the  royal  camp,  where  they  knelt  down, 
Count  Christopher  and  other  officers  were  par- 
doned   and    a    general    amnesty    granted.     The 


The  Reformation  65 

supremacy  of  Liibeck  in  Scandinavian  waters 
which  had  lasted  two  centuries  was  gone  for  ever. 
The  Catholic  Church  in  Denmark  was  doomed  and 
the  peasants  and  burgesses  were  deprived  of 
their  political  power  by  the  nobility. 

The  two  years'  civil  war  was  ended.  With  a 
victorious  army  at  his  back,  Christian  III  decided 
to  follow  the  example  of  Gustaf  Vasa  in  Sweden 
and  confiscate  the  estates  of  the  bishops.  But 
Rantzau  with  his  officers  urged  him  to  finish  all 
with  one  blow  and  secretly.  During  the  night 
preceding  the  King's  birthday,  August  12th,  the 
Archbishop  and  the  prelates  present  in  Copen- 
hagen were  arrested,  and  at  eight  o'clock  on  August 
12th  the  temporal  Councillors  were  compelled  to 
sign  a  document,  abolishing  the  temporal  power  of 
the  bishops,  the  Crown  to  take  possession  of  their 
estates  and  castles.  The  other  bishops  were 
arrested  in  their  dioceses.  A  national  assembly 
of  1200  representatives,  the  largest  that  had  ever 
met,  sat  at  Copenhagen  in  October,  1536.  On 
October  30th  it  enacted  a  recess  which  established 
a  national  Protestant  Church.  Bishops  were 
to  be  abolished,  and  so-called  superintendents, 
learned  Lutherans,  were  to  take  over  their  dioceses 
and  to  teach  and  preach  the  gospel.  All  episcopal 
property  was  to  fall  to  the  Crown  and  be  used  for 
the  good  of  the  kingdom.  The  King  was  to  be 
the  Head  of  the  Church  and  make  all  appointments. 

The  royal  charter  was  issued  the  same  day; 
such  stress  was  laid  on  the  hereditary  right  of 
5 


66  The  Story  of  Denmark 

the  family  of  Christian  III  to  the  Crown  that  it 
was  only  in  name  that  Denmark  continued  to  be 
an  elective  monarchy.  Members  of  the  State 
Council  were  to  have  the  exclusive  right  to  hold 
the  fiefs  of  the  Crown.  Regarding  Norway,  the 
charter  contained  the  following  Article,  which 
altered  the  status  of  that  country:  «- 

"Inasmuch  as  the  Realm  of  Norway  is  now  so 
reduced  in  power  that  the  inhabitants  thereof 
are  unable  by  themselves  to  maintain  a  sovereign 
and  king,  and  the  said  Realm  is  nevertheless 
joined  for  all  time  to  the  Crown  of  Denmark, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  State  Council  of  Nor- 
way, above  all  Archbishop  Olaf,  now  the  chief 
head  of  that  kingdom,  has  twice  within  a  short 
time  risen  against  the  Realm  of  Denmark,  now 
therefore  we  have  promised  the  Council  and  the 
nobility  of  Denmark  that,  if  Almighty  God  should 
so  dispose  that  the  said  Realm  of  Norway,  or 
any  part  of  it,  shall  return  to  our  dominion,  then 
it  shall  hereafter  be  and  remain  subject  to  the 
Crown  of  Denmark,  like  our  other  provinces, 
Jutland,  Funen,  Sjaelland,  or  Scania,  and  here- 
after shall  not  be  or  be  called  a  kingdom  apart 
but  a  member  of  the  Kingdom  of  Denmark, 
subject  to  the  Crown  of  Denmark  for  all  time." 

This  sentence  of  death  on  the  Kingdom  of 
Norway  was  drafted  by  the  Danish  nobles,  but 
it  remained  a  dead  letter.  The  King  had  a  heredi- 
tary right  to  Norway  which,  in  all  State  papers, 
continued  to  be  referred  to  as  a  separate  kingdom. 


The  Reformation  67 

Still,  though  Norway  retained  its  own  laws  and 
administration,  Danish  nobles  held  all  the  most 
lucrative  offices  in  the  country.  The  last  Catholic 
Archbishop  of  Norway,  Olaf  Engelbrektsson,  en- 
tered into  treasonable  correspondence  with  Charles 
V  and  Frederick,  Count  Palatine,  the  son-in-law 
of  Christian  II,  but  after  a  brief  struggle,  he  fled 
the  country  about  Easter,  1537.  He  took  with 
him  the  treasures  and  archives  of  Trondhjem 
Cathedral,  and  sought  refuge  in  the  Netherlands. 
All  Norwegian  bishops  resigned  their  offices,  but 
only  one  of  them  became  a  renegade  and  was  ap- 
pointed Lutheran  superintendent  of  two  dioceses. 

Bugenhagen  was  called  from  Germany  to  organ- 
ize the  Church  and  to  crown  the  King.  The 
Protestant  conqueror  set  himself  to  reconstruct 
the  Church  from  top  to  bottom.  After  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  monastic  property  the  revenues  of 
the  Crown  were  tripled.  Administration  was 
put  on  an  economic  and  orderly  footing.  A  new 
class  of  efficient  officials  was  created.  A  pious 
and  cautious  common  sense  characterized  the 
King,  who  found  Denmark  racked  and  ruined 
by  civil  war,  religious  quarrels,  and  class  hatred. 
When  he  died,  on  New  Year's  Day,  1559,  he  had 
by  his  wise  and  conciliatory  policy  recreated  a 
new  and  stronger  Denmark  which  held  the  hege- 
mony of  the  North  and  dominated  the  Baltic 
with  her  new-built  fleet. 

In  1544,  ne  divided  the  duchies  of  Slesvig  and 
Hoi  stein  with  his  brothers,  Duke  Hans  and  Duke 


68  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Adolphus.  The  possessions  of  the  three  Dukes  were 
scattered  here  and  there  in  the  duchies  and  were 
from  that  time  called  the  Gottorp,  Sonderborg, 
and  Haderslev  divisions  after  the  most  important 
castles  in  each  part.  Until  1539  the  German 
nobles  of  the  duchies  who  had  put  Christian  III 
on  the  Danish  throne  had  most  influence  with 
him,  though  they  could  not  be  members  of  the 
Council  or  hold  castles  and  fiefs,  according  to 
the  charter.  The  Danish  nobility  having  won  the 
King  over  to  their  side,  granted  him  one  twentieth 
of  their  property  to  pay  his  debt  to  the  Holstein 
nobility.  Christian  III  allied  himself  with  Sweden 
and  France  against  Charles  V,  who  continued  to 
regard  him  as  merely  the  Duke  of  Holstein.  A 
state  of  war  existed  between  them,  1542-44, 
without  actual  hostilities.  By  the  Treaty  of 
Speier,  1544,  the  claims  of  the  daughters  of 
Christian  II  on  the  Danish  throne  were  abandoned. 
The  new  Church  Ordinance  was  promulgated  on 
September  2,  1537,  on  the  same  day  as  the  seven 
superintendents  who  took  the  place  of  bishops 
were  consecrated  by  Bugenhagen  who  was  only 
a  priest.  Thus  the  apostolical  succession  was 
lost  by  the  Danish  bishops;  the  old  name  "bishop " 
soon  came  back  into  use  instead  of  "superin- 
tendent." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SEVEN  YEARS'   WAR    (1563-70) 

Frederick  II,  1559-88,  had  in  his  youth  been 
prevented  by  his  father  from  marrying  the  niece 
of  his  tutor,  Anna  Hardenberg,  with  whom  he 
had  fallen  in  love;  he  took  this  so  much  to  heart 
that  he  refused  to  come  to  his  father's  death-bed 
or  to  marry  during  the  first  half  of  his  reign.  At 
last  his  aunt,  the  Duchess  of  Mecklenburg, 
induced  him,  1572,  to  marry  her  daughter,  and 
though  the  Queen  was  twenty-three  years  younger 
than  the  King  the  marriage  turned  out  to  be  a 
happy  one. 

Soon  after  his  accession  Frederick,  in  league 
with  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Holstein,  undertook 
to  subdue  the  stubborn  peasants  of  Ditmarsken. 
They  had  utterly  routed  a  large  Danish  army 
under  King  Hans  in  1500  and  captured  the  royal 
standard,  the  Dannebrog.  An  army  of  twenty 
thousand  men,  under  the  consummate  leadership 
of  Johan  Rantzau,  invaded  Ditmarsken,  the  heroic 
resistance  of  the  peasants  was  overcome,  and 
their  country  was  divided  by  the  conquerors, 
but  they  retained  most  of  their  old  liberties. 

69 


70  The  Story  of  Denmark 

The  so-called  Seven  Years'  War  with  Sweden, 
1563-70,  broke  out  when  the  Swedes  suddenly 
attacked  and  defeated  a  Danish  fleet  off  Born- 
holm,  1563.  The  Kings  of  the  two  countries  had 
both  quartered  the  three  Crowns  in  their  arms. 
Swedish  ambassadors  and  Swedish  ships  had 
been  molested  and  detained.  Lubeck  and  Poland 
joined  Denmark  in  this  war.  Frederick,  march- 
ing through  Halland,  captured  the  fortress  of 
Elfsborg  and  cut  Western  Sweden  off  from  her 
seaboard.  The  Swedish  army  suffered  a  defeat 
in  Halland,  while  at  sea  the  Swedish  fleet  more 
than  held  its  own  against  the  united  squadrons 
of  Lubeck  and  Denmark.  In  1564  the  Swedes 
occupied  the  Norwegian  provinces  Jamtland  and 
Herjedalen,  which  became  Swedish  in  1645; 
they  even  held  Trondhjem  for  a  time.  The  war 
degenerated  into  raids  with  barbarous  atrocities, 
plunder,  and  slaughter  of  women,  children,  and 
prisoners.  The  Danes  asserted  that  they  were 
only  retaliating  for  the  insane  acts  of  Eric  XIV, 
who  had  given  orders  to  burn  and  ravage  foot  by 
foot  and  who  gleefully  noted  in  his  diary  the  cruel 
wiping  out  of  village  after  village. 

In  1565  the  Swedes  won  two  decisive  naval 
victories  over  the  Danes  whose  heroic  admiral, 
Herluf  Trolle,  was  mortally  wounded.  Klas 
Kristersson  Horn,  the  greatest  naval  hero  of 
Sweden,  again  defeated  the  united  fleets  of  Den- 
mark and  Lubeck,  in  1566,  dominated  the  Baltic, 
and  levied  duties  on  all  ships  passing  through  the 


The  Seven  Years'  War  71 

Sound.  But  on  land  Daniel  Rantzau  was  vic- 
torious time  after  time  over  superior  forces  pitted 
against  him.  In  the  winter  of  1567-68  he  pene- 
trated far  inland  into  Central  Sweden  and,  out- 
numbered, made  one  of  the  most  famous  retreats 
in  the  military  annals  of  Denmark,  through  diffi- 
cult, hostile  country;  he  was  killed  during  a  siege 
in  1569.  Tired  of  this  fruitless  war,  Denmark 
and  Sweden  made  peace  at  Stettin,  December, 
1570.  The  Kings  of  Denmark  and  Sweden  mutu- 
ally renounced  their  claims  on  each  other's  terri- 
tories. Sweden  was  to  pay  150,000  rixdollars 
for  the  surrender  of  Elfsborg,  and  the  right  to 
quarter  the  three  Crowns  was  to  be  arbitrated 
upon.  Denmark  had  vindicated  her  predomi- 
nance in  the  North.  To  mark  her  dominion  in 
northern  seas  all  foreign  ships  passing  through 
them  were  forced  to  strike  their  topsail  to  Danish 
men-of-war.  The  Castle  of  Kronborg  was  built 
at  Elsinore  to  guard  the  Sound  and  take  toll  of 
the  ships  that  passed  though  it.  Frederick  II 
appreciated  and  employed  ability  when  he  found 
it,  and  gathered  round  himself  a  circle  of  accom- 
plished servants  of  State.  He  bestowed  the 
island  of  Hveen  in  the  Sound,  a  pension,  a  canonry, 
and  the  income  of  an  estate  on  Tycho  Brahe 
(1546-1601),  the  great  astronomer  who  built  the 
splendid  observatory  of  Uranienborg,  where  James 
VI  visited  him.  Tycho  Brahe  spent  his  last  four 
years  in  exile  at  Prague.  After  long  negotiations 
with  regard  to  a  marriage  between  James  VI  of 


The  Story  of  Denmark 


Scotland  and  his  eldest  daughter,  on  which  occa- 
sion he  was  to  get  back  Orkney  and  Shetland, 
Frederick  II,  tired  of  Scotch  dilatoriness,  married 
her  to  the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  James  then 
turned  to  his  next  daughter,  Anna,  and  at  length, 
after  an  ultimatum  sent  by  the  Danish  Council, 
the  espousals  were  signed.  Anna,  on  her  way  to 
Scotland,  was  driven  back  to  Norway  by  witch- 
craft, it  was  believed,  and  the  phlegmatic  James 
stole  out  of  his  kingdom  and  celebrated  their 
wedding  in  Norway,  1589.  Frederick  II  died 
1588. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHRISTIAN   IV    ( 1 588-1 648) 

Christian  IV  (1588-1648)  was  ten  years  old  on 
his  accession  to  the  throne.  The  State  Council 
nominated  four  regents  to  govern  in  his  name  till 
he  came  of  age  in  1596.  The  real  rulers  of  the 
elective  monarchy  were  the  nobility;  exclusive, 
selfish,  and  decadent,  they  preferred  caste  privi- 
leges to  the  welfare  of  the  country;  yet  they  pos- 
sessed one  half  of  all  lands  and  estates  and  the 
peasants  were  gradually  becoming  their  bondsmen. 
The  young  King  was  an  indefatigable  worker,  full 
of  superabundant  energy  and  of  zeal  for  reform. 
He  explored  outlying  parts  of  his  dominions;  he 
sailed  round  the  North  Cape  into  the  White 
Sea.  He  examined  with  his  own  eyes  all  details 
of  the  administration.  But  his  great  gifts  were 
vitiated  by  a  pleasure-loving  nature,  prone  to 
excesses.  With  his  great  personal  courage  and 
military  and  artistic  talents,  he  was  a  full-blooded 
Renaissance  type.  After  the  death  of  his  queen, 
Anne  Catherine  of  Brandenburg,  he  married, 
morganatically,  Christine  Munk,  a  lady  of  noble 
birth,  by  whom  he  had  twelve  children;  she  was 

73 


74  The  Story  of  Denmark 

sent  away  for  infidelity,  and  one  of  her  maids 
supplanted  her  as  the  King's  openly  acknowledged 
mistress.  The  quarrels  between  his  natural  child- 
ren, among  themselves  and  with  his  legitimate 
children,  caused  the  King  much  grief  and  misery. 
The  daughters  of  Christine  Munk  were  married 
to  high  officers  of  State  and  created  countesses. 

Christian  IV  founded  and  rebuilt  many  towns 
in  Denmark,  Norway,  Scania,  and  Holstein.  He 
drew  up  himself  the  plans  for,  and  laid  out,  the 
new  capital  of  Norway,  Christiania  (so  called 
from  his  name),  to  which  he  moved  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  old  city  of  Oslo  in  1624.  Copenhagen 
was  enlarged  and  embellished,  and  his  splendid 
Dutch  Renaissance  buildings  are  still  the  pride 
of  that  city.  Industry  and  trade  were  fostered 
in  many  ways.  A  number  of  chartered  companies 
were  established,  the  Danish  East  India  Company 
at  Tranquebar,  a  Danish  possession  in  India, 
the  West  India  Company, rthe  Icelandic  Company. 
Fine  ships  were  built  for  the  navy  from  his  own 
designs.  He  increased  the  navy  to  three  times 
its  strength.  But  his  army  consisted  mainly 
of  mercenaries,  with  levies  from  the  peasants 
on  the  royal  estates. 

When  Charles  IX  of  Sweden,  at  his  coronation, 
assumed  the  title  of  King  of  the  Lapps  of  "Nord- 
land" — which  included  Northern  Norway — and 
granted  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  newly  founded 
city  of  Goteborg  (Gothenburg)  the  right  to  trade 
and  fish  in  those  parts,  Christian  IV  forced  the 


Christian  IV  75 

hand  of  his  State  Council  by  declaring  that  he 
would  make  war  on  Sweden  as  Duke  of  Slesvig 
and  Holstein  if  the  Council  refused  to  do  so. 

The  Kalmar  War,  1611-13,  is  called  thus  from 
Kalmar,  the  chief  fortress  of  South  Sweden;  it 
was  captured  by  the  Danes  after  a  three  months' 
siege,  in  August,  161 1.  Charles  IX,  exasperated 
by  this  loss,  challenged  Christian  to  single  combat, 
sword  in  hand.  "Herein  if  you  fail  we  shall 
no  longer  consider  you  an  honourable  king  or 
soldier."  Christian,  in  his  reply,  advised  the 
"paralytic  dotard,"  as  he  termed  the  old  King, 
to  stay  by  his  warm  fireside  with  his  nurse. 
Charles  did  not  long  survive  this  ignominy,  and 
his  successor,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  offered  to  give 
way  on  the  questions  in  dispute,  but  Christian 
rejected  all  peace  terms.  In  1612  he  captured 
the  fortress  of  Elfsborg,  defending  the  only  west- 
ern outlet  of  Sweden.  Some  hundreds  of  the 
Scottish  auxiliaries  of  Sweden  were  cut  down  by 
the  peasants  of  Gudbrandsdal  on  their  march 
across  Norway  to  reach  Sweden.  Sweden  had 
to  yield  on  most  points  in  the  peace  of  Knasrod, 
1613.1  It  was  the  last  time  that  Denmark  tri- 
umphed over  her  rival . 

Christian  was  jealous  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
acquiring  the  dominion  of  the  northern  seas,  and 
set  himself  to  get  his  younger  sons  appointed  to 
the  secularized  North  German  bishoprics  in  order 
to  become  master  of  the  outlets  of  the  Elbe  and 

1  See  Sweden. 


76  The  Story  of  Denmark 

the  Weser.  He  succeeded  in  this  by  promising 
to  help  the  hardly  pressed  Protestants.  Urged  by 
England  and  France,  ill-supported  by  his  German 
Protestant  allies,  trusting  to  vain  promises,  he 
invaded  the  Empire  with  a  mainly  German  army, 
1625.  His  vigour  was  impaired  by  a  fall  from 
his  horse  on  a  rampart,  which  rendered  him  un- 
conscious for  a  time.  He  was  opposed  by  Tilly, 
later  joined  by  Wallenstein,  and  was  beaten  in  a 
decisive  battle  at  Lutter  am  Barenberg,  near 
Brunswick,  August  27,  1626.  His  German  allies 
abandoned  him.  In  1627  Wallenstein  overran 
Holstein  and  Slesvig,  and  the  entire  peninsula  of 
Jutland  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  mercenaries,  who 
ravaged  and  plundered  the  lands  of  the  "heretics" 
to  their  hearts'  content,  with  wanton  cruelty. 
Christian,  in  Funen,  was  quarrelling  with  his 
State  Council  and  looked  on,  helpless  to  avert  dis- 
aster. The  Emperor  now  began  to  aim  at  dom- 
inating the  Baltic  and  extirpating  the  Lutheran 
heresy.  Wallenstein  was  nominated  "General 
of  the  Baltic  and  Oceanic  Seas"  and  vested  with 
the  duchies  of  Mecklenburg.  Jutland  was  to 
become  Spanish,  Poland  was  to  be  helped  against 
Sweden,  and  the  Dutch  trade  was  to  be  excluded. 
In  1626  Stralsund,  which  was  important  for  the 
"Baltic  General,"  was  besieged,  and  the  Kings 
of  Denmark  and  Sweden  forgot  their  jealousy  and 
jointly  sent  reinforcements  to  relieve  the  garrison, 
while  Christian  with  the  combined  fleet  captured 
the    adjacent    islands    and    kept    the    sea    open. 


CHRISTIAN   IV 


Christian  IV  77 

Wallenstein  had  boasted  that  he  would  take 
Stralsund  "though  it  were  slung  with  chains  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven,"  but  the  garrison,  ani- 
mated by  Sir  Alexander  Leslie  who  commanded 
the  Scoto-Swedish  auxiliaries,  defended  themselves 
so  gallantly  that  Wallenstein  was  compelled  to 
retire  with  heavy  losses.  At  a  peace  conference 
in  Lubeck,  from  which  the  Swedish  ambassadors 
were  ignominiously  excluded,  exorbitant  demands 
were  raised  at  first  by  the  Emperor,  but  Wallen- 
stein granted  better  terms  in  May,  1629.  The 
conquered  provinces  were  restored  to  Denmark, 
which  renounced  the  secularized  bishoprics  and 
all  right  of  interference  in  the  Empire,  abandoning 
its  allies  and  the  Protestant  cause. 

Among  the  King's  sons-in-law  the  most  promi- 
nent were  the  brilliant  Korfits  Ulfeld,  Lord  High 
Steward,  married  to  Leonora  Christina,  the  most 
gifted  of  the  royal  daughters,  and  Hannibal 
Sehested,  who  showed  great  ability  as  viceroy  of 
Norway.  While  they  supported  the  King  at 
first,  they  turned  against  him  when  he  came  into 
collision  with  the  discredited  aristocracy.  Chris- 
tian tried  to  mediate  in  favour  of  the  Emperor 
during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  to  prevent  Sweden 
from  becoming  too  powerful  in  the  Baltic.  He 
refused  exemption  from  Sound  customs  to  Sweden's 
new  provinces,  and  hampered  her  trade  and  naviga- 
tion. Oxenstierna  saw  that  Denmark  stood  in 
the  way  of  Sweden's  hegemony  of  the  North,  and 
that  the  moment  to  strike  had  come.      He  sent 


78  The  Story  of  Denmark 

secret  instructions  to  Torstensson,  who  marched 
from  Moravia  and  crossed  the  Danish  frontier  in 
December,  1643.  With  the  rapidity  of  lightning 
he  occupied  the  whole  peninsula  of  Jutland  in  a 
few  weeks.  In  this  danger  Denmark  was  only 
saved  by  the  personal  exertions  of  the  sixty-seven- 
year-old  King  who  spent  days  and  nights  in 
equipping  his  navy  and  levying  men.  In  April, 
1644,  a  Dutch  fleet  sailed  to  help  to  transport 
Torstensson  to  the  islands;  the  King  beat  it  on  the 
west  coast  of  Slesvig  and  it  returned  to  Holland. 
In  June,  1644,  a  Swedish  fleet  of  forty  sail  came 
to  take  Torstensson  to  the  islands.  Christian 
met  it  in  a  hard-fought  ten  hours'  battle  off  Kol- 
berger  Heide.  His  heroism  on  this  occasion  has 
been  celebrated  in  the  Danish  national  hymn, 
written  by  Evald.  A  gun  exploded  on  the  quarter 
deck  where  he  stood,  and  splinters  of  wood  and 
metal  wounded  him  in  thirteen  places,  destroyed 
one  eye,  and  felled  him  to  the  deck.  He  rose  at 
once,  said  he  was  not  hurt,  and  remained  on  deck 
encouraging  his  men  until  the  Swedish  fleet  with- 
drew into  Kiel  Bay,  where  it  was  blockaded,  but 
escaped,  and  the  Danish  admiral  who  was  to  blame 
for  this  was  shot  by  the  King's  orders.  A  com- 
bined Dutch  and  Swedish  fleet  attacked  a  Danish 
fleet  near  Laaland  and  took  or  destroyed  fifteen 
out  of  seventeen  ships;  the  Danes  were  outnum- 
bered by  more  than  two  to  one.  Christian  was 
now  forced  to  make  peace  at  Bromsebro,  on  the 
Swedish  frontier  on  August  13,  1645.     The  oft- 


HESSELAGERGAARD   CASTLE 


Christian  IV  79 

contested  provinces,  Jamtland  and  Herjedalen, 
and  the  islands  of  Osel  and  Gotland  were  ceded 
to  Sweden,  and  Halland  for  thirty  years,  as  a 
security  for  the  exemption  from  Sound  customs 
dues  of  Sweden  and  her  new  provinces.  These 
customs  decreased  to  one  fourth  of  their  earlier 
volume.  The  nobility  had  a  great  share  in  this 
disaster,  and  in  his  bitterness  the  King  said:  "They 
care  not  for  God,  King,  or  country,  but  only  for 
their  own  selfish  interests."  His  own  son-in-law, 
Ulfeld,  humiliated  him  and  triumphed  over  him. 
He  died  in  1648,  after  a  reign  of  fifty-two  years, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-one.  His  heroic  valour  and 
devotion  to  the  welfare  of  his  country  was  a  gleam 
of  hope  in  the  disasters  and  misfortunes  which 
overtook  Denmark.  The  maritime  genius  of  the 
Danes  was  embodied  in  him,  who  had  a  marvel- 
lous knowledge  of  the  minutest  details  of  ship- 
building and  navigation. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ABSOLUTISM — GRIFFENFELD 

Frederick  III  was  not  elected  till  four  months 
after  his  father's  death,  when  he  had  signed  a 
charter  which  still  further  curtailed  the  royal 
power.  He  was  learned,  taciturn,  and  reserved, 
utterly  unlike  his  father.  His  ambitious  Queen, 
Sophie  Amalie  of  Brunswick,  at  once  quarrelled 
with  Leonora  Christina  and  Ulfeld,  the  leaders  of 
the  aristocracy.  Hannibal  Sehested,  another  of 
their  leaders,  was  found  guilty  of  peculation  and 
surrendered  his  huge  estates  and  his  seat  in  the 
Council  to  get  a  pardon.  Soon  after  Ulfeld  and 
his  wife  fled  to  Holland,  July,  1651,  on  account 
of  similar  charges,  while  he  was  thought  to  be 
implicated  in  a  fictitious  plot  to  poison  the  King 
and  Queen.  The  King  took  foreign  affairs  into 
his  own  hands  when  he  had  succeeded  in  dis- 
gracing these  leaders  of  the  nobility.  He  seized 
the  opportunity  when  Charles  X  was  beset  with 
difficulties  in  Poland  to  declare  war  on  Sweden, 
though  he  had  only  vague  promises  of  support 
and  his  army  was  ill-prepared  for  war.1 

'For  the  war,  1657-60,  see  Sweden. 
80 


Absolutism  81 

The  heroic  defence  of  Copenhagen  by  King  and 
commons  had  discredited  the  nobility  still  fur- 
ther. Its  exemption  from  taxes  grated  on  the 
public  conscience.  Frederick  III  saw  that  the 
time  had  come  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  at  the  oli- 
garchy of  nobles.  His  chief  helpers  in  the  revolu- 
tion which  made  Denmark  an  absolute  monarchy 
were  Burgomaster  Hans  Nansen  and  Hans  Svane, 
Bishop  of  Sjaelland.  The  Estates  assembled  in 
September,  1660.  The  burgesses  and  clergy 
claimed  that  the  new  indirect  taxation  should 
apply  to  the  nobles  who,  after  bitter  resistance, 
were  forced  to  yield  to  "slaves  who  ought  to  keep 
within  their  limits,"  as  they  called  them.  After 
securing  the  garrison  and  the  armed  citizen  forces, 
the  Estates  of  Burgesses  and  of  the  clergy  offered 
Denmark  as  a  hereditary  monarchy  to  the  King 
in  return  for  his  deliverance  of  it  during  the  war, 
and  called  on  the  nobles  and  the  Council  to  concur, 
but  they  refused;  their  leader,  meeting  Burgo- 
master Nansen  in  the  street,  pointed  to  the  State 
prison  and  asked  if  he  knew  it,  but  the  burgo- 
master's answer  was  to  point  to  the  alarm  bell  of 
Our  Lady's  Church  which^was  used  to  call  the 
citizens  to  arms.  The  guards  were  doubled,  the 
gates  closed,  the  citizen  forces  armed,  whereupon 
the  King  asked  the  Council  to  give  an  answer 
quickly;  his  threat  cowed  them  and  on  October 
13th  they  concurred  with  the  other  Estates  and 
made  over  Denmark  as  a  hereditary  monarchy  to 
Frederick  III  and  his  heirs  male  and  female,  the 


82  The  Story  of  Denmark 

privileges  of  the  Estates  to  be  maintained.  A 
commission  was  named  to  discuss  the  question 
of  the  charter  and  the  coronation  oath ;  the  charter 
was  surrendered  to  the  King  and  he  was  released 
from  his  oath.  Supreme  power  was  placed  in  his 
hands  and  he  was  asked  to  issue  a  new  constitu- 
tional charter,  according  to  his  good  pleasure, 
"as  to  His  Majesty  should  seem  best  for  the  general 
welfare."  On  October  18,  1660,  the  solemn 
ceremony  of  homage  to  the  hereditary  monarch 
was  performed  by  the  different  orders  and  ranks 
in  an  amphitheatre  erected  in  the  public  square 
opposite  the  Royal  Palace;  he  promised  to  rule  as 
a  Christian  hereditary  king  and  gracious  master 
and  as  soon  as  possible  to  give  a  Constitution, 
fair  and  just  to  all  classes.  Every  one  kissed  the 
hands  of  the  King  and  Queen  and  a  great  banquet 
at  the  palace  inaugurated  the  new  absolutism. 
The  promised  Constitution  was  never  heard  of 
any  more  after  that  day  and  the  Estates  of  Den- 
mark did  not  meet  again  for  nearly  two  centuries. 
The  archives  of  the  State  Council  were  removed 
to  the  palace,  as  a  sign  that  it  had  ceased  to  exist. 
In  January,  1661,  a  document  was  drawn  up  and 
circulated  for  signature  throughout  the  Danish 
dominions  by  which  the  signatories  declared  that 
they  conferred  on  the  King  and  his  male  and  female 
heirs  absolute  government  and  sovereignty  and 
rendered  him  homage  as  their  hereditary  absolute 
lord  and  sovereign.  The  nation  abdicated  in 
favour  of  an  absolute  monarch,  above  all  human 


Absolutism  83 

laws.  The  new  Constitution  of  the  absolute 
monarchy,  Lex  Regia,  was  written  by  the  King's 
secretary,  Peter  Schumacher;  it  was  signed  by 
Frederick  III  on  November  14,  1665,  but  kept 
secret  till  his  death  in  1670. 

It  conferred  on  the  King  personally  the  whole 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  powers  of  the 
State.  He,  acknowledging  no  superior  but  God 
in  affairs  civil  and  spiritual,  holds  the  sole  and 
exclusive  authority  of  making,  repealing,  amend- 
ing, and  interpreting  the  laws,  with  the  right  of 
exempting  any  one  he  pleases  from  obeying  them. 
The  only  restriction  on  his  absolute  authority  was 
his  profession  of  the  Protestant  religion  according 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  maintenance  of 
the  kingdom  undivided.  By  Article  26  the  Lex 
Regia  was  declared  to  be  irrevocable,  and  all 
persons  attempting  to  alter  or  infringe  it  guilty 
of  high  treason. 

This  was  indeed  the  logical  carrying  out  of  ab- 
solutism to  its  last  consequences.  Lord  Moles- 
worth,  the  British  Ambassador  at  the  Danish 
Court,  in  his  Account  of  Denmark  as  it  was  in  the 
year  16Q2,  says  the  Danish  people  hug  their  chains, 
"the  only  comfort  left  them  being  to  see  their 
former  oppressors  in  almost  as  miserable  a  condi- 
tion as  themselves,  the  impoverished  nobles  being 
compelled  to  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor  tenants 
for  their  own  subsistence."  The  administration 
was  reorganized  and  divided  into  five  colleges, 
i.  e.,  boards  or  departments  of  State,  a  centralized 


84  The  Story  of  Denmark 

bureaucracy.  But  all  matters  of  importance  were 
decided  by  the  King,  who  consulted  at  his  pleasure 
one  of  the  members  of  the  newly  established  Privy 
Council.  Lucrative  posts  formerly  held  by  the 
nobility  were  filled  by  men  of  low  birth  who  were 
the  most  obedient  instruments  for  executing  the 
will  of  the  autocrat.  Korfits  Ulfeld,  after  being 
subjected  to  ignominious  treatment  in  prison, 
fled  abroad;  one  of  his  intrigues  against  Frederick 
III  was  his  offer  of  the  Danish  Crown  to  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg.  For  this  he  was  be- 
headed and  quartered  in  effigie  in  Copenhagen 
and  a  pillory  erected  on  the  site  of  his  house,  which 
was  pulled  down.  He  died  in  exile.  His  noble 
and  gifted  wife,  Leonora  Christiana,  was  delivered 
up  by  Charles  II,  having  fled  to  England,  and  for 
twenty-two  years  suffered  harsh  indignities  in  a 
dungeon  from  which  she  was  only  released  at  the 
death  of  her  rival,  Queen  Sophie  Amalie.  Her 
memoirs  of  this  time  bear  witness  to  her  high- 
minded  fortitude  of  soul. 

Peder  Schumacher,  Denmark's  greatest  states- 
man since  Absalon,  was  the  son  of  a  wealthy  citizen 
in  Copenhagen.  Extraordinarily  gifted,  he  was 
sent  abroad  to  study  at  universities  and  royal 
courts,  1654-62.  He  resided  in  Germany,  Hol- 
land, and  then  (1657-60)  at  Queen's  College, 
Oxford.  He  was  an  eyewitness  to  the  Restora- 
tion, and  Hobbes's  views  impressed  him  deeply. 
He  was  in  Paris  when  Louis  XIV  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  centralized  monarchy  whose  adminis- 


GrifFenfeld  85 

tration  and  culture  were  imitated  all  over  Europe. 
On  his  return  Schumacher  became  librarian  of  the 
newly  founded  Royal  Library,  then  the  King's 
secretary.  He  was  steadily  rising  in  the  King's 
favour,  the  only  stepping-stone  to  power. 

Frederick  III  wobbled  cautiously  between  the 
various  coalitions  in  Europe  in  1660-70;  during 
the  Anglo-Dutch  War  the  Dutch  East  India  fleet 
found  a  safe  retreat  in  the  harbour  of  Bergen 
against  the  squadron  of  Lord  Sandwich  sent  to 
intercept  it. 

Frederick  III  died  in  1670,  and  on  his  death- 
bed said  to  his  son,  "Make  a  great  man  of  Schu- 
macher, but  do  it  slowly."  The  first  act  of  the 
weak,  shallow,  vain  Christian  V  (1670-96)  was 
to  appoint  Schumacher  secretary  of  the  Privy 
Council,  when  he  handed  him  the  secret  Lex  Regia, 
confided  to  him  alone  by  the  late  King.  He  be- 
came Privy  Councillor  and  was  ennobled  as  Count 
Griflenfeld,  from  the  griffin  surmounting  his  arms. 
In  1 67 1  the  titles  of  Count  and  Baron  were  intro- 
duced, and  an  ordinance  of  rank  was  issued  which 
graduated  all  honour  and  precedence;  the  order 
of  Dannebrog  was  instituted  to  mark  the  royal 
favour.  The  new  aristocracy  of  merit — and  of 
favour — was  to  oust  the  old  aristocracy  of  birth. 
The  administration  was  systematized  and  made 
efficient.  The  Privy  Council  was  to  consist  of 
the  heads  of  the  Government  boards;  the  admin- 
istration under  Griffenfeld's  superior  insight  and 
direction  became  more  efficient.     In  1673,  he  was 


86  The  Story  of  Denmark 

created  Knight  of  the  Order  of  the  Elephant — 
otherwise  reserved  for  royal  persons — and  Grand 
Chancellor;  thereafter  he  devoted  himself  to 
foreign  policy.  His  aim  was  to  keep  peace,  re- 
cover the  power  and  prestige  of  Denmark,  and 
secure  her  by  her  alliances  which  brought  subsidies, 
without  sacrificing  neutrality.  Christian  V  and 
his  generals  chafed  at  his  temporizing  and  dilatory 
policy;  they  were  eager  to  reconquer  the  lost 
provinces  from  Sweden.  The  King  one  day  sub- 
mitted to  his  all-powerful  Chancellor  fifteen  points 
as  to  which  he  desired  him  to  be  more  cautious 
in  future.  On  March  II,  1676,  Griffenfeld  was 
arrested.  The  charges  against  him  were  mainly 
of  peculation;  the  most  serious  one  was  a  note  in 
his  private  diary:  "To-day  the  King  talked  like 
a  child  to  the  ambassadors."  His  written  appeal 
to  the  King  for  mercy,  his  marvellous  defence 
before  an  extraordinary  court,  composed  of  his 
enemies,  availed  nothing.  He  was  sentenced  to 
lose  life,  honour,  and  goods.  His  escutcheon  was 
broken  asunder  on  the  scaffold,  but  as  he  lay  there 
awaiting  the  deathblow  of  the  executioner's  axe, 
the  King's  pardon  and  commutation  of  the  sen- 
tence to  prison  for  life  arrived.  "May  God  for- 
give you,  I  was  so  ready  to  die,"  he  broke  out; 
a  lingering  death  of  twenty-two  years  in  a  severe 
prison,  deprived  of  writing  materials,  was  the  end 
of  a  statesman  'of  whom  Louis  XIV  said  he  was 
without  his  peer  in  Europe.  Danish  autocracy 
broke  the  genius  who  laid  its  basis  and  founda- 


Griffenfeld  87 

tion;  Griffenfeld's  cruel  and  undeserved  fate  was 
the  most  grievous  loss  that  absolutism  could  inflict 
not  only  on  its  own  efficiency,  but  on  the  rank 
that  Denmark  held  among  the  nations  of  Europe. 
Ole  Romer  (1644-17 10)  discovered  the  velocity 
of  light,  and  was  a  pioneer  in  the  invention  and 
improvement  of  astronomical  instruments.  The 
laws  of  Denmark  were  codified  and  published  in 
1683.  ■ 

1  For  the  Scanian  War,  1675-79,  see  Sweden. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ABSOLUTISM   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

Frederick  IV  (i  699-1 730)  was  twenty-eight 
years  old  when  he  ascended  the  throne.  He  had 
been  so  badly  educated  that  he  was  not  even  able 
to  write  German,  the  language  spoken  at  Court, 
correctly,  and  still  less  Danish  or  French.  His 
scanty  stock  of  knowledge  hampered  him  a  good 
deal  in  later  life.  At  twenty-one  he  went  on  a 
long  journey  to  Italy,  and  acquired  a  love  for  art 
which  found  expression  in  his  efforts  to  embellish 
Copenhagen.  In  spite  of  his  numerous  amours  he 
worked  diligently  for  the  welfare  of  his  subjects, 
and  won  his  people's  love  by  the  way  in  which  he, 
the  absolute  monarch,  could  talk  to  his  humblest 
subject  and  sympathize  with  him. 

Relations  with  the  Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp 
soon  became  strained.  Duke  Frederick  IV  was 
married  to  a  sister  of  Charles  XII,  and  his  policy 
was  wholly  anti-Danish.  Frederick  IV  of  Den- 
mark, a  month  after  his  accession,  made  an  alli- 
ance with  Augustus,  King  of  Poland  and  Elector 
of  Saxony,  joined  later  by  Peter  the  Great,  against 
Sweden  and  invaded  the  duchies  early  in  1 700. 

88 


Absolutism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  89 

He  took  Gottorp  but  the  sudden  descent  of  Charles 
XII  on  Sjaelland  forced  him  to  make  peace  at 
Travendal,  August,  1700.  He  conceded  full  sov- 
ereignty to  the  Duke  with  the  right  of  building 
fortresses  in  Slesvig  and  paid  a  war  indemnity. 
The  Duke  was  killed  in  the  army  of  Charles  XII 
at  the  battle  of  Klissow  in  Poland,  1702. 

Denmark  now  enjoyed  some  years  of  peace. 
The  King  tried  to  create  a  national  army  and  to 
form  a  permanent  militia;  he  built  the  forts  of 
Trekroner  and  Provestenen  to  defend  Copen- 
hagen from  the  seaside,  put  the  navy  on  a  better 
footing,  and  introduced  economy  into  the  public 
finances. 

For  a  long  time  the  "Vornedskab,"  a  kind  of 
serfdom,  had  existed  among  the  peasants  and 
tenants  in  Sjaelland,  Lolland,  Falster,  andMoen; 
tenants  were  not  allowed  to  leave  the  estate  on 
which  they  were  born,  and  they  were  bound  to 
take  the  dwelling-house  or  the  work  assigned  them 
by  the  landlord.  This  was  doubtless  favourable 
for  agriculture,  but  not  for  the  peasants.  The 
Vornedskab  was  introduced  to  promote  agricul- 
ture, and  even  free  peasants  could  be  compelled 
to  stay  on  their  farms  and  till  the  land.  The 
Vornedskab  cannot  be  compared  with  Russian 
serfdom,  and  it  did  not  extend  to  women.  Fred- 
erick IV  realized  its  injustice,  and  in  1702  he 
abolished  it  for  all  peasants  born  after  his  accession. 
But  soon  it  was  found  that  their  emancipation 
was  too  sudden;  instead  of  tilling  the  land  they 


90  The  Story  of  Denmark 

left  their  farms.  Then  the  "Stavnsbaand,"  which 
existed  till  1788,  came  into  use;  it  resembled 
villenage,  and  was  worse  than  the  Vornedskab. 

To  form  a  militia,  the  King  ordered  that,  in 
proportion  to  their  lands,  landed  proprietors 
should  provide  recruits,  who  were  to  serve  six 
years,  for  military  service.  The  men  inscribed  on 
the  military  rolls  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  leave 
the  estate  where  they  were  inscribed  without  the 
landowner's  permission.  Christian  VI  abolished 
the  militia  ordinance  soon  after  his  accession,  but 
reintroduced  it  in  1733;  all  men  between  fourteen 
and  thirty-six  years  of  age  were  to  be  inscribed  on 
the  rolls  and  thus  bound  to  the  soil.  In  1764  it 
was  extended  to  the  age  of  four,  peasants'  sons 
being  inscribed  at  that  age.  The  masters  decided 
which  peasants  were  taken  for  military  service, 
and  they  often  refused  them  permission  to  leave 
the  estate.  Even  after  doing  military  service 
the  peasant  was  bound  to  take  the  farm  his  master 
chose  to  give  him,  as  he  could  punish  him  with 
more  military  service  if  he  refused.  Thus  the 
peasant  had  no  incentive  to  be  industrious,  and 
became  a  lazy  laggard.  And  the  Stavnsbaand 
which  was  established  to  promote  agriculture 
gradually  had  the  opposite  effect. 

Frederick  IV  again  declared  war  against  Sweden 
in  her  hour  of  need  in  1709.  He  wished  to  break 
the  alliance  between  Sweden  and  Holstein-Got- 
torp  in  order  to  recover  Slesvig.  He  made  a 
journey  to  Italy  in  1708,  and  concluded  an  alii- 


Absolutism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  91 

ance  with  the  kings  of  Poland  and  of  Prussia  on  his 
way  back.  He  thought  the  moment  favourable 
with  Charles  XII  as  a  fugitive  in  Turkey  after 
Poltava,  and  landed  in  Scania  with  fifteen  thousand 
men  in  1709;  successful  at  first,  he  was  beaten  in 
a  battle  near  Helsingborg  by  the  raw  peasant 
levies  of  Count  Magnus  Stenbock  and  evacuated 
Scania.  The  war  then  moved  to  the  German 
provinces  of  Sweden.  Stenbock  again  beat  the 
Danish  army  at  Gadebusch,  in  Pomerania,  ad- 
vanced into  Holstein  and  burnt  Altona,  Decem- 
ber, 1712.  Then  the  Saxon  and  Russian  allies 
of  the  Danes  came  up,  and  Stenbock,  outnum- 
bered, sought  shelter  in  the  fortress  of  Tonningen, 
which  he  surrendered  for  lack  of  provisions. 
Whereupon  Denmark  occupied  the  duchies.  At 
sea  the  Danish  fleet  was  triumphant,  especially 
after  the  great  Norwegian  naval  hero,  Peder 
Wessel,  ennobled  and  known  as  Torenskjold, 
came  on  the  scene.  In  1716  he  destroyed  the 
transports  of  the  Swedish  army  in  Dynekilen, 
and  in  1719  he  took,  by  a  coup  de  main,  the  im- 
pregnable rock  fortress  Karlsten,  and  the  city  of 
Marstrand. 

In  July,  1 71 6,  Peter  the  Great  arrived  in  Sjael- 
land  with  thirty  thousand  men  to  join  the  twenty- 
three  thousand  men  provided  by  Frederick  IV, 
to  invade  Scania  under  cover  of  the  English, 
Danish,  and  Russian  fleets.  After  two  months  of 
mysterious  delay  by  the  Danes,  the  mutual  suspi- 
cion of  the  Allies  grew  so  strong  that  Peter  post- 


92  The  Story  of  Denmark 

poned  the  invasion,  while  it  was  with  the  utmost 
difficulty  that  Frederick  IV  was  able  to  persuade 
his  troublesome  guest  to  leave  Sjaelland  at  all. 
After  the  death  of  Charles  XII  in  Norway  peace 
was  concluded  with  Sweden  on  July  3,  1720,  at 
Frederiksborg.  Denmark  retroceded  her  con- 
quests in  Germany,  Rugen,  Farther  Pomerania 
to  the  Peene,  and  Wismar  in  return  for  a  war 
indemnity  of  six  hundred  thousand  rixdollars. 
Sweden  promised  not  to  meddle  in  the  affairs 
of  Holstein-Gottorp.  Great  Britain  and  France, 
joined  later  by  Russia  and  Austria,  guaranteed, 
in  separate  treaties,  that  Slesvig  should  for  ever  re- 
main in  the  possession  of  Denmark.  In  1 72 1  Slesvig 
was,  by  a  special  Act,  incorporated  as  a  dominion 
of  the  Danish  Crown.  This  was  an  important 
result  of  this  inglorious  war. 

Denmark  was  afflicted  by  a  series  of  national 
calamities  in  this  reign:  the  plague  in  171 1,  the 
inundations  of  171 7  which  devastated  the  western 
coasts  of  Slesvig  and  Holstein,  and  the  fire  that 
laid  two  thirds  of  Copenhagen  in  ashes  in  1728. 
Undaunted,  the  King  husbanded  the  resources 
of  the  country,  reduced  the  national  debt,  built 
a  large  number  of  schools  and  the  castles  of  Fre- 
densborg  and  Frederiksborg,  introduced  a  regular 
postal  service,  opened  the  first  Danish  theatre 
in  Copenhagen,  1722,  sent  missionaries  to  the 
East  Indies,  to  Finmark,  and  to  Greenland,  where 
Hans  Egede,  "the  apostle  of  Greenland,"  did 
noble  and  grand  work  among  the  Eskimos. 


Absolutism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  93 

In  1695  the  King  had  married  Louise  of  Meck- 
lenburg, by  whom  he  had  five  children ;  but  during 
the  Queen's  life  he  married  to  his  left  hand,  mor- 
ganatically,  Helene  von  Viereck,  in  1703;  after 
her  death  her  place  was  taken  by  Charlotte 
Schindel.  Next  he  fell  in  love  with  the  young 
Countess  Anna  Sophie  Reventlow.  He  abducted 
her,  and  was  married  to  her  morganatically  for 
nine  years  during  the  lifetime  of  his  Queen,  thus 
committing  bigamy  a  second  time.  When  the 
Queen  died,  he  married  Anna  Sophie  Reventlow 
two  days  after  the  funeral,  this  time  to  his  right 
hand,  and  then  crowned  her  as  his  Queen,  in  spite 
of  the  angry  opposition  of  the  royal  family.  His 
ideas  of  the  sacredness  and  absolute  power  of 
Royalty  led  him  to  suspect  his  ministers  and  the 
old  Danish  nobility  of  trying  to  encroach  on  his 
privileges.  With  all  his  faults  he  was  loved  by 
the  common  people,  who  loathed  his  son,  Christian 
VI. 

Christian  VI  was  thirty-one  when  he  ascended 
the  throne.  His  whole  appearance  was  unsym- 
pathetic. His  voice  and  his  face  were  equally 
disagreeable.  His  tutor,  and  his  Lord  Chamber- 
lain, Count  Holstein,  the  later  Premier,  were 
Germans,  serious  and  deeply  religious  men  who 
gave  him  a  good,  pietistic,  German  education. 
He  was  sorely  aggrieved  when  his  father  married 
Anna  Sophie  Reventlow  while  his  mother,  Queen 
Louise  of  Mecklenburg,  was  still  alive.  He  hated 
the  young  Countess  whom  his  father  married 


94  The  Story  of  Denmark 

immediately  after  the  Queen's  death.  He  him- 
self married  Sophie  Magdalene  of  Brandenburg- 
Kulmbach;  she  was  pious  and  religious  but  at  the 
same  time  ambitious  and  extravagant,  of  weak 
health,  sulky  and  fretful.  The  Court  was  a  dull 
place  where  people  were  bored  to  death.  Chris- 
tian VI  had  the  best  will  in  the  world  to  make 
"his  children,"  as  he  called  his  subjects,  good 
Christians  and  good  citizens,  but  he  had  not  the 
gift  to  please  them.  He  was  shy  and  awkward, 
and  became  more  and  more  inclined  to  a  melan- 
choly pietism  which  considered  all  amusements 
to  be  sinful;  balls  and  plays  were  prohibited  at 
Court.  He  moved  from  one  palace  to  another, 
strictly  guarded.  The  people  were  kept  at  a 
distance  from  the  Palace  by  heavy  iron  chains, 
and  they  had  to  uncover  when  passing  near  the 
Palace,  and  consequently  seldom  approached  it. 

Denmark  was  not  involved  in  war  during  his 
reign.  He  rebuilt  the  University,  burnt  down  in 
1728,  and  gave  it  a  new  and  greatly  improved 
charter,  1732,  founded  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
1742,  and  built  a  School  of  Arts.  But  all  litera- 
ture, even  scientific,  was  subject  to  the  censorship 
of  pietistic  clergymen. 

He  developed  the  navy  and  commerce  and 
navigation,  but  his  efforts  to  protect  Danish  manu- 
factures were  not  always  successful.  All  work 
was  prohibited  on  Sundays  and  on  all  holy  days. 
Attendance  at  church  was  compulsory;  those  who 
failed  to  attend  were  fined  or  put  in  the  stocks 


Absolutism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  95 

which  were  provided  at  every  church.  In  1736 
the  confirmation  of  children  by  clergymen  was 
introduced,  and  in  1737  a  General  Church  Inspec- 
tion College  was  established  in  order  to  supervise 
the  teaching  and  the  conduct  of  every  clergyman 
and  teacher,  and  see  that  people  attended  church, 
also  to  censor  books  before  publication.  As  its 
members  were  fanatic  pietists,  it  gave  rise  to 
general  hypocrisy  and  demoralization. 

To  gratify  the  whims  and  caprices  of  the  Queen 
Christian  VI  spent  huge  sums  in  building  splendid 
palaces;  he  pulled  down  the  new-built  Copen- 
hagen Castle  and  erected  in  its  place  Christians- 
borg  Castle,  which  was  on  too  large  a  scale  for 
his  kingdom.  Hirschholm  Castle  was  built  at 
great  cost  on  a  swamp  merely  because  the  Queen 
so  desired;  she  lived  there  for  fourteen  years  after 
the  King's  death  as  Queen  Dowager.  No  other 
Danish  Queen  saw  so  little  of  her  subjects,  but 
she  gave  freedom  to  the  peasants  on  her  estates, 
the  present  Horsholm. 

Frederick  V  (1746-66)  had  been  educated  in 
this  narrow  German  pietism,  but,  as  a  natural 
reaction,  he  became  a  total  contrast  to  his  father. 
He  took  no  interest  in  religious  matters,  and  his 
subjects  were  much  relieved  to  find  that  he  abol- 
ished all  restrictions  on  their  joys  and  pleasures 
and  intellectual  life.  Pleasure-loving,  kind,  and 
good-natured,  he  soon  became  a  popular  favourite. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  married  Louisa, 
daughter  of  George  II  of  England.     Her  beauty 


96  The  Story  of  Denmark 

and  charm  won  the  heart  of  the  Danish  people. 
The  Royal  Theatre  which  had  been  closed  for 
sixteen  years  was  reopened,  and  the  plays 
of  Holberg,  the  Danish  Moliere,  were  acted 
again.  A  joyous  time  had  succeeded  the  age  of 
kill-joy. 

The  King  took  little  interest  in  affairs  of  State, 
and  Denmark  was  governed  by  prominent  states- 
men, Count  Bernstorff,  Count  Schulin,  and  Count 
Moltke.  Peace  was  maintained,  though  the 
danger  of  a  war  was  great  in  1762.  Peter  III  of 
Russia  was  Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp  when  he 
succeeded  to  the  throne  in  1762,  and  his  one  idea 
was  to  take  revenge  on  the  secular  enemy  of  his 
duchy,  Denmark.  The  Russian  army  advanced 
through  Mecklenburg,  but  Denmark  took  up  the 
challenge  and  sent  forty  thousand  men  into  Meck- 
lenburg to  meet  them,  while  her  large  and  well- 
equipped  fleet  dominated  the  Baltic.  The  hostile 
armies  were  within  touch  of  each  other  when 
Peter  III  was  suddenly  dethroned  by  Catherine 
II,  July  9,  1762.  She  was  wholly  averse  to  this 
war,  and  made  peace  with  Denmark. 

Johann  Hartwig  Ernst,  Count  of  Bernstorff, 
was  the  chief  ruler  of  Denmark  in  1750-70.  He 
was  not  only  a  great  foreign  minister,  but  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  upright  ministers  Denmark 
ever  had  the  good  fortune  to  possess.  He  came 
of  a  Mecklenburg  family,  settled  in  Hanover,  and 
never  learnt  the  Danish  language.  He  did  much 
to  assist  and  promote  industry,  agriculture,  com- 


Absolutism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  97 

merce,  science,  and  art.  It  was  natural  that  he 
looked  to  Germany  for  light  and  leading.  He 
invited  men  of  letters  and  scientists  from  abroad 
to  settle  in  Denmark,  Klopstock,  Basedow,  Oeder, 
Mallet,  and  others.  Danish  literature  was  re- 
suscitated by  the  genial  favour  of  the  Court,  and 
the  Norwegian  dramatist,  Ludvig  Holberg,  "the 
father  of  Danish  literature,"  had  free  scope  for 
his  activity.  The  Asiatic  or  East  India  Company 
flourished  under  royal  protection,  and  as  a  mark 
of  gratitude  erected  a  fine  statue  of  the  King  on 
horseback  in  the  Palace  Square. 

Unfortunately  the  King  was  prone  to  low  plea- 
sures and  excesses,  and  even  his  marriage  to  the 
beloved  Queen  Louise  did  not  make  him  give  up 
that  life.     They  had  five  children.     She  died  in 

1 75 1,  deeply  mourned  by  King  and  people. 
Frederick  V  now  wished  to  marry  a  daughter  of 
Count  Moltke,  with  whom  he  had  fallen  in  love, 
but  Moltke,  then  Premier  of  Denmark,  refused 
his  consent,  and  hurriedly  arranged  a  marriage 
between  the  King  and  Juliane  Marie  of  Brunswick, 

1752.  Their  son,  Prince  Frederick,  was  the 
father  of  the  later  Christian  VIII  of  Denmark. 
Frederick  V  died  of  an  illness  caused  by  excesses 
in  drink,  1766,  at  the  age  of  forty-two. 

He  appointed  a  Commission  to  improve  the 
lot  of  the  peasants,  and  men  like  Bernstorff 
and  Moltke  introduced  hereditary  leaseholds  on 
their  estates.  But,  for  reasons  of  economy,  the 
royal  estates,  where  the  peasants  were  com- 
7 


98  The  Story  of  Denmark 

paratively  well  treated,  were  sold  to  German 
and  Danish  noblemen,  and  the  position  of  the 
peasantry  became  gradually  worse  and  verging  on 
serfdom. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CHRISTIAN  VII  AND   STRUENSEE 

Christian  VII  succeeded  his  father  at  seventeen 
years  of  age,  in  1766.  His  mother  died  when  he 
was  but  two  years  old,  and  his  father  neglected  his 
education.  He  was  a  handsome  boy,  weak  and 
nervous  from  his  earliest  childhood,  with  a  bent 
for  vices  inherited  from  his  father.  His  character 
was  shallow  and  superficial  and  easily  influenced. 
His  tutor,  Count  Reventlow,  was  brutal  and 
ignorant.  He  beat  and  punished  the  timid, 
capricious  boy  who,  to  escape  punishment,  con- 
cocted a  whole  system  of  deception  and  simu- 
lation. Under  this  guidance  he  inevitably 
deteriorated.  When  the  Swiss,  Reverdil,  was  ap- 
pointed tutor,  he  saw  that  the  boy  was  mentally 
abnormal  and  had  been  cruelly  treated;  he  tried 
to  gain  his  confidence  by  kindness,  but  it  was  too 
late.  All  his  good  natural  qualities  had  been 
poisoned  by  ill-treatment,  and  he  took  a  malicious 
delight  in  cunning  deception  and  pretence  and  in 
trickery.  He  had  been  forced  to  learn  the  Bible 
in  a  mechanical  soulless  way,  and  in  consequence 
religion  was  ridiculed  by  him.     Many  of  the  young 

99 


ioo  The  Story  of  Denmark 

pages  at  Court,  his  playmates  and  comrades, 
were  depraved  and  dissolute  and  made  him  a 
debauchee.  His  bright  vivacity  and  natural 
gifts  might  have  been  turned  to  good  account  by 
careful  guidance;  now  they  all  turned  into  symp- 
toms of  madness  and  imbecility.  A  boy  of  seven- 
teen, depraved  in  mind  and  body,  was  thus  the 
absolute  monarch  of  Denmark  and  Norway. 

For  a  few  months  after  his  accession  it  seemed 
as  if  he  realized  his  responsibility.  He  abolished 
the  villenage  of  peasants  on  certain  Crown  estates, 
and  asked  his  father's  ministers  to  stay  in  office. 
But  soon  his  vicious  habits  reasserted  themselves. 
He  spent  days  and  nights  in  the  company  of 
drunkards  and  loose  women,  dancing  along  the 
streets  in  wanton  revelry,  breaking  windows  and 
waking  up  peaceful  citizens.  He  liked  to  show 
his  power  as  an  autocrat  by  discharging  old  and 
tried  servants;  he  dismissed  his  old  minister, 
Count  Moltke,  in  1766,  and  in  1767  the  very  able 
and  efficient  heads  of  the  army  and  of  the  navy, 
and  his  faithful  tutor,  Reverdil.  The  only  person 
for  whom  he  still  had  some  respect  was  Count 
BernstorfT,  who  was  sorely  grieved  to  see  the 
future  of  Denmark  entrusted  to  such  a  King. 

A  marriage  was  arranged  between  Christian 
VII  and  his  cousin,  the  English  Princess  Caroline 
Matilda.  She  was  the  posthumous  child  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  a  sister  of  King  George  III. 
Despite  her  own  will  she  became,  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  the  queen  of  a  king  barely  seventeen  years 


Christian  VII  and  Struensee      101 

old  of  whom  many  evil  reports  had  reached  Eng- 
land. She  had  never  seen  Christian  VII  when 
she  was  first  married  to  him  by  proxy;  then  she 
was  married  on  her  arrival  in  Denmark,  Novem- 
ber 8,  1766.  The  coronation  of  the  royal  couple 
took  place  on  May  I,  1767.  The  young  Queen 
possessed  all  the  charm  and  innocence  of  youth, 
and  the  Danish  people  greeted  her  with  an  out- 
burst of  joy  and  delight. 

Caroline  Matilda  on  her  arrival  in  Denmark 
was  a  mere  child,  unable  to  wield  an  influence 
over  the  King,  who  after  a  short  honeymoon 
began  to  loathe  her.  Inexperienced,  without 
friends,  environed  by  a  corrupt  Court  in  a  foreign 
country,  she  did  not  know  how  to  treat  the  King, 
whose  conduct  went  from  bad  to  worse.  After 
the  depraved  Count  Hoick  became  his  most  inti- 
mate friend  he  abandoned  himself  to  low  dissipa- 
tion; with  his  drunken  comrades  he  visited  bars 
and  public-houses,  where  His  Majesty  used  to 
break  glasses,  bottles,  and  furniture  to  pieces  and 
throw  them  out  of  the  windows.  Even  the  birth 
of  an  heir  to  the  throne  early  in  1768  made  no 
difference  in  the  King's  conduct.  The  young 
Queen,  who  was  spied  upon  by  Hoick  and  his 
circle,  was  lonely  and  unhappy  in  the  midst  of 
these  revels. 

Soon  after  the  birth  of  his  son,  the  later  Fred- 
erick VI,  the  King  went  on  a  journey  to  the  Courts 
of  Europe.  On  his  way  a  German  doctor  at 
Altona,   Johann  Friedrich   Struensee,   was  intro- 


102  The  Story  of  Denmark 

duced  to  him;  he  was  so  pleased  with  him  that  he 
proposed  he  should  accompany  him  on  his  tour  as 
his  physician;  on  the  King's  return  to  Denmark 
Struensee  was  retained  as  Court  physician.  The 
King's  journey  to  England  and  France,  May, 
1768,  to  January,  1769,  proved  a  great  success. 
Both  in  Paris  and  London  it  was  held  that  this 
charming,  witty,  generous,  and  open-handed  King 
had  been  much  maligned ;  he  was  neither  imbecile 
nor  insane.  On  his  return  his  behaviour  towards 
the  Queen  changed  completely  for  the  better. 
This  was  no  doubt  owing  to  the  strange  influence 
that  Struensee  had  over  him;  he  restored  his 
health  and  the  King  obeyed  him. 

At  first  the  Queen  disliked  Struensee,  who  was 
known  as  an  atheist,  of  dissolute  life  and  elegant 
manners.  He  was  thirty-one  years  old,  gifted 
and  handsome  and  intellectual  and  spoilt  by 
women.  But  she  acknowledged  that  the  change 
in  the  King's  conduct  was  owing  to  his  influence. 
Her  authority  increased  as  the  King  sank  gradu- 
ally into  hopeless  imbecility.  She  began  to  ad- 
mire Struensee,  who  preached  to  her  the  gospel 
of  Rousseau  and  the  Encyclopaedists.  He  courted 
her  and  won  her  heart.  She  fell  deeply  in  love 
with  the  libertine  and  adventurer,  for  whom  she 
was  but  a  means  to  snatch  to  himself  the  supreme 
power  in  the  State.  Already  in  January,  1770, 
he  had  become  her  lover.  The  King,  for  whom 
Struensee  seemed  indispensable,  desired  him  to 
live   at   the   Royal   Palace.     He   was   appointed 


CAROLINE    MATILDA 


Christian  VII  and  Struensee      103 

reader  to  the  King  and  secretary  to  the  Queen. 
He  increased  her  influence  over  the  King,  and  he 
was  in  her  eyes  the  greatest  statesman  in  the 
world,  ready  to  reform  the  old  monarchy  and 
modernize  it  from  top  to  bottom.  In  the  summer 
of  1770  Struensee  succeeded  in  his  ambitious  plans. 
Christian  VII  agreed  to  send  away  his  boon  com- 
panion and  the  Queen's  enemy,  Count  Hoick, 
and  on  September  13,  1770,  he  dismissed  the 
great  minister  who  had  deserved  so  well  of  Den- 
mark, Count  BernstorfT.  He  stood  in  the  way 
of  Struensee,  who  now  appointed  his  friend,  Ene- 
vold  Brandt,  to  look  after  the  person  of  the  im- 
becile autocrat  and  guard  him  so  that  no  one  should 
be  able  to  approach  him.  The  Press  censorship 
was  abolished  the  day  after  Bernstorff  was  dis- 
missed, and  this  gained  Struensee  popular  favour. 
He  soon  got  tired  of  the  complicated  machinery 
of  the  State,  and  in  December,  1770,  he  abolished 
the  Council  of  State  and  appointed  himself 
"Maitre  des  Requites."  All  reports  from  the 
departments  of  State  to  the  King  were  to  pass 
through  his  hands  first.  He  was  the  medium 
through  which  the  King  made  known  his,  i.  e., 
Struensee's  will.  He  aspired  to  a  still  higher 
pinnacle.  On  July  14,  1771,  he  was  appointed 
"Geheimekabinetsminister,"  i.  e.,  practically  sole 
minister  or  dictator,  and  a  few  days  later  he  was 
created  a  Count.  He  was  given  authority  to 
issue  Cabinet  orders  in  the  King's  name,  with  the 
seal  of  the  Cabinet;  they  were  to  be  as  valid  as 


104  The  Story  of  Denmark 

royal  ordinances  with  the  royal  signature,  and  it 
was  his  duty  to  put  in  writing  the  verbal  orders 
of  the  King.  As  if  to  show  that  he  and  not  the 
King  was  the  real  ruler  he  ordered  all  letters  and 
petitions  to  the  King  to  be  sent  to  the  secretary 
of  the  Geheimekabinetsminister. 

Struensee  had  now  more  power  in  his  hands 
than  any  private  person  in  Denmark  below  the 
throne  had  ever  wielded.  He  and  the  Queen 
were  the  unrestricted  and  absolute  rulers.  The 
King  signed  every  document  that  he  was  asked 
to  sign.  Still  he  had  lucid  intervals.  He  hated 
Brandt,  who  sometimes  ill-treated  him  in  his  fits 
of  frenzy.  He  was  apparently  aware  of  the  rela- 
tions between  Struensee  and  the  Queen  which 
were  known  to  all;  he  sometimes  ridiculed  both 
them  and  himself  for  that  reason.  In  the  summer 
of  1 771  the  Queen  gave  birth  to  a  daughter,  Louise 
Augusta,  and  a  Te  Deum  was  ordered  to  be  sung 
in  the  churches  as  a  thanksgiving,  but  everywhere 
the  congregation  walked  out  of  church  when  it 
was  to  be  sung,  in  the  firm  belief  that  the  child 
was  Struensee's.  Even  the  King  made  difficulties 
in  acknowledging  the  child  as  his  daughter. 

Struensee  was  a  fanatical  adherent  of  the  ideas 
of  enlightenment  and  reform  promulgated  by 
the  Encyclopaedists  and  Rousseau,  and  he  wanted 
to  put  them  into  practice  in  what  he  thought  was 
an  effete  monarchy  which  needed  revolution,  root 
and  branch.  Believing  in  freedom  for  the  peas- 
ants he  appointed  a  Commission  to  improve  their 


Christian  VII  and  Struensee      105 

conditions.  But  his  sweeping  reforms  were  based 
on  abstract  principles,  with  lack  of  statesmanlike 
knowledge  and  regard  for  ingrained  customs  and 
prejudices.  Being  himself  a  German  who  never 
learnt  Danish  he  did  not  try  to  understand  the 
needs  and  wants  of  the  Danish  people.  He  wanted 
to  force  his  will  upon  them  and  thus  caused  re- 
sentment; he  often  chose  wrong  ways  and  means 
to  do  good.  Moreover,  he  was  devoid  of  moral 
principles,  fond  of  pleasure,  and  of  a  domineering 
character. 

For  about  sixteen  months  he  was  absolute 
master  of  Denmark,  and  during  that  time  inaugu- 
rated numberless  reforms;  though  many  were 
unmade  at  his  fall,  yet  they  have  left  their 
mark  on  Danish  history.  He  saw  the  necessity 
of  exact  control  of  the  income  and  expenditure 
of  Court  and  State,  and  established  a  Finance 
Board  to  deal  with  and  unify  such  matters.  He 
abolished  judicial  torture,  and  capital  punish- 
ment for  theft,  and  democratized  the  law  courts 
and  the  Copenhagen  municipal  council.  He  laid 
down  certain  qualifications  for  holding  public 
posts ;  formerly  they  were  often  given,  as  a  favour, 
to  the  servants  of  men  of  influence.  He  carried 
reforms  too  quickly  and  with  a  high  hand.  He  dis- 
missed the  staffsof  public  departments,  to  raise  their 
efficiency  and  save  money,  without  pensions,  and 
put  in  new  men.  During  the  last  thirty-eight  weeks 
that  he  held  absolute  power  he  issued,  in  his  reform- 
ing zeal,  no  less  than  one  thousand  and  sixty-nine 


106  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Cabinet  orders.  But  he  had  the  prudence  to 
leave  foreign  affairs  in  the  hands  of  Count  Osten, 
and  did  not  meddle  with  them. 

Soon  the  number  of  his  enemies  increased,  while 
public  opinion  was  disgusted  and  contemptuous. 
He  outraged  the  moral  and  religious  sense  of  the 
people  when  he  issued  an  ordinance  that  adultery 
and  unchastity  should  not  be  punished  in  future, 
established  foundling  institutions,  converted  a 
chapel  into  a  hospital  for  venereal  diseases,  per- 
mitted public  masquerades  in  their  worst  form, 
introduced  State  lotteries,  and  permitted  gam- 
bling. The  Danish  nobility  detested  the  German 
adventurer  who  had  made  German  the  indispens- 
able medium  of  communication  with  the  Govern- 
ment. It  was  found  more  than  once  on  the 
occasion  of  riots  that  he  lacked  personal  courage. 
A  powerful  secret  conspiracy  against  him  was 
formed  by  the  Queen  Dowager,  Juliane  Marie, 
the  King's  stepmother,  her  son,  Prince  Frederick, 
the  later  Premier,  Guldberg,  the  officer  command- 
ing the  regiment  guarding  the  Court,  and  others. 
At  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  January  17,  1772, 
after  a  bal  masque  in  the  Palace,  the  conspirators 
burst  into  the  King's  bedroom,  and  made  him 
sign  an  order  to  arrest  Struensee,  Brandt,  and 
several  others,  and  to  send  Queen  Caroline  Matilda 
to  Kronborg  Castle.  The  imbecile  King  rubbed 
his  hands,  delighted  that  he  was  now  taking 
revenge  for  ill-usage  of  himself,  and  he  was  actu- 
ally acclaimed  by  the  people  as  he  was  driven 


STRUENSEE 


Christian  VII  and  Struensee      107 

round  in  state  next  day.  Struensee  was  next 
arrested  in  his  bedroom  and  chained  to  the  wall 
in  his  prison.  He  was  prosecuted  for  usurpation 
of  the  royal  authority,  for  lese-majeste,  and  for 
injury  to  His  Majesty's  honour.  He  denied 
everything  at  first,  but  learning  that  the  Queen, 
too,  was  a  prisoner  he  confessed  the  nature  of  his 
relations  with  her.  He  and  Brandt — for  personal 
violence  to  the  King — were  sentenced  to  a  bar- 
barous and  vindictive  mode  of  execution.  On 
April  28, 1772,  first  the  right  hand  was  cut  off,  next 
the  head,  whereupon  the  head  was  set  on  a  pole 
and  the  body  drawn  and  quartered. 

The  Queen,  at  that  time  not  yet  twenty-one 
years  old,  was  imprisoned  in  Kronborg  Castle 
at  Elsinore  with  her  infant  daughter.  She  shielded 
Struensee,  but,  confronted  with  his  confession, 
she  confessed  the  truth.  On  April  6th  an  extra- 
ordinary court  of  thirty-five  members  sentenced 
her  to  be  divorced  from  the  King,  but  her  impris- 
onment for  life  in  a  Danish  fortress  was  prevented 
by  her  brother,  George  III  of  England,  who  be- 
lieved her  innocent.  He  demanded  that  she 
should  be  treated  as  an  English  princess,  and  an 
English  man-of-war  arrived  at  Elsinore  to  escort 
her,  but  alone,  without  her  infant  daughter,  to 
her  brother's  electorate,  Hanover,  where  she 
resided  for  the  rest  of  her  life  in  the  old  castle  of 
the  town  of  Celle.  She  was  loved  by  the  towns- 
people, and  she  lived  there  for  nearly  three  years. 
Plans   by    British    and    Danish    malcontents,    in 


io8  The  Story  of  Denmark 


consultation  with  her,  to  depose  Christian  VII 
by  a  military  pronunciamiento  and  seize  the  reins 
of  government  at  Copenhagen  came  to  nothing. 
She  died  of  smallpox  on  May  10,  1775,  not  yet 
twenty-four  years  old.  At  twenty  her  career  as 
Queen,  which  began  with  her  triumphal  entry  in 
Copenhagen  at  fifteen,  .was  over.  ' 


CHAPTER  XV 

FREDERICK     VI — DENMARK     AND      ENGLAND — THE 
LOSS  OF  NORWAY 

The  Danes  were  jubilant  over  the  revolution, 
not  realizing  that  in  reality  it  was  a  reactionary 
measure  and  that  the  new  men  were  anti-progres- 
sives. They  continued  to  govern  by  Cabinet 
orders,  and  Guldberg  himself,  though  he  was  the 
moving  spirit  of  the  Government,  1772-84,  held 
no  office  but  that  of  secretary  to  the  King  and  later 
State  Secretary.  His  character  was  conservative 
to  a  degree,  and  he  abolished  the  reforms  of  Stru- 
ensee,  the  good  with  the  bad.  The  Danish  lan- 
guage took  the  place  of  German  in  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice and  in  the  Army.  The  liberty  of  the  Press 
was  confined  in  narrow  bounds  and  the  condition 
of  the  peasants  deteriorated.  A.  P.  Bernstorff, 
who  had  the  statesmanlike  gifts  of  his  uncle,  was 
made  Foreign  Minister,  but  Guldberg  favoured 
Russia  and  was  unfriendly  to  England,  while 
Bernstorff  was  a  great  admirer  of  British  institu- 
tions. They  disagreed,  and  when  Denmark  joined 
the  League  of  Armed  Neutrality  at  the  bidding  of 

Russia,  in   1780,  the   Russian   Ambassador    per- 

109 


no  The  Story  of  Denmark 

suaded  Guldberg  to  have  Bernstorff  dismissed 
because  of  his  friendly  attitude  to  England. 

Discontent  with  Guldberg's  reactionary  ten- 
dencies grew  rife,  and  the  first  act  of  the  sixteen- 
year-old  Crown  Prince,  Frederick,  on  taking  his 
seat  in  the  State  Council,  April  14,  1784,  was  to 
have  him  dismissed;  this  was  a  complete  surprise 
for  Guldberg. 

The  Crown  Prince,  born  in  1768,  had  a  very 
unhappy  childhood.  Struensee  tried  to  harden 
the  weak  constitution  of  the  boy  in  various  pain- 
ful ways.  After  his  mother's  divorce  from  the 
King  no  one  cared  for  or  was  kind  to  him.  The 
Queen  Dowager  neglected  his  education  and 
detested  him.  Though  shy  and  awkward  he  was 
very  industrious  and  took  a  deep  interest  in 
national  Danish  matters.  Even  while  he  was  a 
mere  boy  he  mused  on  assuming  the  reins  of 
government.  After  consultation  with  A.  P.  Bern- 
storff he  succeeded,  on  April  14,  1784,  in  getting 
his  father's  signature  to  a  document  by  which 
Bernstorff  was  appointed  Premier  and  Guldberg 
who  only  eight  days  before  had  assumed  that 
office  was  dismissed.  Assisted  by  such  men  as 
Bernstorff,  Reventlow,  Schimmelmann,  and  others 
the  Crown  Prince  regent  ruled  Denmark  during 
the  King's  insanity,  1784  to  1808. 

A  happy  and  successful  period  of  reform  began. 
Commerce  flourished  as  never  before,  and  Bern- 
storff steered  the  ship  of  State  through  the  storms 
of   war   and   revolution   that   raged   in   Europe. 


Denmark  and  England  m 


&' 


Though  the  Crown  Prince  believed  in  the  sacred 
rights  of  royalty  he  worked  hard  for  the  welfare 
of  his  people.  He  was  anxious  to  free  the  peasants 
as  soon  as  possible.  A  Commission,  guided  by 
Reventlow  and  Colbjornsen,  inquired  fully  into 
the  question,  and  on  June  20,  1788,  the  "  Stavns- 
baand"  was  abolished.  The  grateful  peasants 
erected  the  so-called  "Liberty  Column"  in  Copen- 
hagen in  1792  in  memory  of  their  emancipation 
and  in  gratitude  to  the  Crown  Prince. 

In  1780  Russia  promulgated  a  code  of  maritime 
law  maintaining  the  principle,  "a  free  ship  makes 
the  cargo  free,"  and  refusing  to  recognize  the  right 
of  search  for  contraband  in  neutral  ships.  Den- 
mark and  Sweden  joined  Russia  in  a  League  of 
Armed  Neutrality,  an  alliance  for  the  protection 
of  neutrals.  Their  cruisers  convoyed  and  pro- 
tected their  merchantmen.  In  1794  a  separate 
alliance  was  concluded  between  Denmark  and 
Sweden  for  the  same  purpose.  On  July  25,  1800, 
the  Danish  frigate  Freia,  with  the  merchantmen 
it  convoyed,  was  taken  into  the  Thames,  after  a 
fight  against  English  cruisers.  After  the  conven- 
tion of  August  29,  1800,  between  England  and 
Denmark,  the  Freia  was  restored  and  the  convoy- 
ing of  ships  ceased.  The  Armed  Neutrality 
League  of  1780  was  renewed  in  December,  1800, 
by  Russia,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prussia.  Eng- 
land laid  an  embargo  on  all  Danish  and  Norwegian 
ships  on  January  14,  1801,  two  days  before  Den- 
mark ratified  the  Neutrality  Treaty  with  Russia. 


ii2  The  Story  of  Denmark 

The  Russian  Emperor,  Paul,  expelled  the  Danish 
Ambassador  because  he  was  not  sufficiently 
anti-English. 

England's  answer  was  to  send  a  fleet  of  53 
sail,  including  20  ships  of  the  line,  to  the 
Baltic,  under  Admiral  Sir  Hyde  Parker  and 
Nelson.  It  passed  the  Sound  off  Elsinore  on 
March  30th,  unharmed  by  the  guns  of  Kronborg 
Castle.  On  April  2,  1801,  Nelson,  with  35  ships, 
including  11  ships  of  the  line,  1192  guns,1  and  8885 
men,  attacked  7  dismasted  blockships,  two  ships 
of  the  line,  and  some  floating  batteries  and  gun- 
boats, with  5063  men  and  630  guns,  under  Olfert 
Fischer,  in  the  port  of  Copenhagen.  We  must 
add  the  fort  of  Trekroner  with  66  guns  and  931 
men.  Most  of  the  Danes  were  raw  recruits  and 
university  students,  but  Nelson  declared  after- 
wards it  had  been  the  hottest  fight  he  had  ever 
been  in.  After  five  hours'  desperate  fighting, 
when  six  of  his  ships  of  the  line  were  aground, 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  Trekroner,  he  sent  a  message 
to  the  Crown  Prince  with  a  letter:  "He  would 
spare  Denmark  when  no  longer  resisting,  but  if 
the  firing  were  continued  he  would  be  obliged  to 
set  on  fire  all  the  floating  batteries  he  had  taken 
with  their  brave  crews."  The  letter  was  ad- 
dressed: "To  the  Brothers  of  Englishmen,  the 
Danes."  The  Crown  Prince  at  once  agreed  to  a 
truce  of  twenty-four  hours.  Nelson  now  wrote: 
"that  he  will  ever  esteem  it  the  greatest  victory  he 
had  ever  gain'd  if  this  flag  of  truce  may  be  the 


Denmark  and  England  113 

happy  forerunner  of  a  lasting  and  happy  union" 
between  England  and  Denmark.  The  Danes  had 
375  dead  and  670  wounded,  Nelson  350  dead 
and  850  wounded.  The  eighteen-year-old  Peder 
Willemoes  fought  Nelson's  flagship  in  a  little 
gunboat  for  four  hours,  and  lost  80  out  of  120  men. 
Nelson  declared  to  the  Crown  Prince  that  Wil- 
lemoes deserved  to  be  made  an  admiral  for  his 
masterly  manoeuvring.  On  April  9th  an  armistice 
of  fourteen  weeks  was  concluded.  Denmark 
ceased  to  be  a  member  of  the  Neutrality  League. 
On  April  8th  news  reached  Copenhagen  that  the 
Emperor  Paul  had  been  assassinated  in  his  bed- 
room in  the  night  between  March  23d  and  24th. 
Thus  in  less  than  six  months  the  Armed  Neutral- 
ity League  was  dissolved.  There  was  an  outburst 
and  a  renascence  of  poetry  and  of  national  pride 
in  Denmark  after  April  2,  1801  (Grundtvig, 
Oehlenschlaeger,  and  others). 

[Napoleon  himself  spoke  in  enthusiastic  terms 
of  the  heroic  defence  of  the  Danes  to  the  assembled 
foreign  ambassadors,  and  declared  that  the  Danes 
had  reminded  the  English  that  they  were  their 
old  conquerors. 

The  British  Order  in  Council  of  January  7, 
1807,  prohibiting  neutral  merchantmen  from 
trading  between  French  ports  or  the  ports  of  the 
allies  of  France,  ruined  the  flourishing  commerce 
of  Denmark,  especially  in  the  Mediterranean. 
In  July,  1807,  Napoleon  and  Alexander  I  agreed, 
by  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  that  France  and  Russia 


ii4  The  Story  of  Denmark 

should  jointly  call  on  the  governments  at  Copen- 
hagen, Stockholm,  and  Lisbon  to  close  their  ports 
to,  and  declare  war  on,  England ;  any  of  the  three 
governments  that  refused  to  do  this  was  to  be 
treated  as  an  enemy.  On  August  3,  1807,  Napo- 
leon wrote  to  his  ambassador  at  Copenhagen 
that  Denmark  must  now  break  off  all  intercourse 
with  Great  Britain.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  Crown  Prince  regent,  who  was  with  the 
Danish  army,  guarding  the  southern  frontier  of 
Holstein,  would  have  refused  this  demand  which 
infringed  Danish  neutrality,  but,  before  it  actu- 
ally reached  him,  his  hand  had  been  forced  by 
England.  Relying  on  a  demonstrably  false  ru- 
mour that  the  Danish  fleet  was  fitting  out  against 
England,  and  disregarding  the  advice  of  his  own 
ambassador  in  Denmark,  Canning  secretly  sent 
a  fleet  of  25  sail  of  the  line,  40  frigates,  and  377 
transports  to  the  Baltic;  30,000  soldiers  under 
Lord  Cathcart,  with  General  Wellesley  (Welling- 
ton) as  second  in  command,  were  on  board.  The 
fleet,  commanded  by  Admiral  Gambier,  arrived 
in  the  Sound  early  in  August,  1807.  A  special 
ambassador  proffered  the  English  demand  of 
alliance  or  war  at  Copenhagen.  The  decision, 
however,  lay  with  the  Crown  Prince  regent  at 
Kiel.  If  England  had  only  waited  a  few  days 
more,  Napoleon's  peremptory  demand  would 
have  reached  him  first  and  compelled  him  to  side 
with  England.  But  Canning  sent  the  high-handed 
Jackson  to  Kiel,  where  he  demanded  from  the 


Denmark  and  England  115 

Crown  Prince  the  delivery  of  the  Danish  fleet  into 
English  hands  to  remain  there  till  the  close  of 
hostilities;  offering  him  simultaneously  the  choice 
between  alliance  or  war.  Jackson  bandied  high 
words  with  the  Crown  Prince,  and  gave  him  eight 
days'  grace.  The  Crown  Prince  hurried  to  Copen- 
hagen and  put  it  in  a  state  of  defence,  but  when 
Jackson  arrived  there  he  had  gone  back  to  Kiel. 
Jackson,  on  the  expiry  of  the  ultimatum,  went 
on  board  the  fleet  August  13th,  Sjaelland  was 
blockaded,  and  siege  was  laid  to  the  ill-prepared 
Copenhagen,  which  was  garrisoned  by  13,000 
untrained  men,  mostly  volunteers.  To  hasten 
its  surrender  the  city  was  bombarded,  September 
2d  to  5th.  The  University,  the  Cathedral,  and 
three  hundred  houses  were  burnt  or  destroyed. 
Copenhagen  capitulated  on  September  7th.  All 
ships,  stores,  ammunition,  and  naval  fittings  were 
delivered  to  the  English,  and  all  its  arsenals  were 
emptied;  17  ships  of  the  line  (14  of  them  of  70 
guns  and  over),  12  frigates,  8  brigs,  and  35  gun- 
boats, valued  by  Gambier  at  £2,000,000,  were 
carried  away  to  England.  The  British  expedi- 
tion was  to  leave  Sjaelland  within  six  weeks  of 
the  armistice.  English  ships  continued  to  cruise 
round  Sjaelland,  and  the  Danish  island  Anholt 
was  occupied  by  an  English  garrison,  1809-14. 

Filled  with  righteous  anger  at  this  unprovoked 
attack,  the  Crown  Prince  concluded  an  alliance 
with  Napoleon,  October  31,  1807,  whereupon 
England  declared   war  on   Denmark,  November 


n6  The  Story  of  Denmark 

4th.  A  Franco-Spanish  army  under  Bernadotte, 
stationed  in  Jutland  and  Funen,  was  prevented 
by  British  ships  from  crossing  to  Sjaelland  in 
order  to  invade  Scania,  and  in  August,  1808, 
eight  thousand  eight  hundred  Spanish  troops 
escaped  on  board  English  ships  to  assist  in  the 
rising  of  their  countrymen  against  Napoleon. 

The  poor  lunatic  Christian  VII  had  such  a  bad 
shock  at  the  sight  of  the  French  and  Spanish 
soldiers  marching  through  the  town  where  he 
resided  in  Holstein,  that  he  died  soon  after,  March 
13,  1808,  and  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  been 
regent  since  1784,  now  succeeded  him  as  Frederick 
VI,  at  a  fatal  moment  in  the  history  of  Denmark. 

When  a  Russian  army  marched  into  Finland 
on  February  21,  1808,  Denmark,  bound  by  the 
terms  of  her  Russian  alliance,  was  embroiled  with 
Sweden,  and  compelled  to  declare  war  on  her, 
February  29th.  Norwegian  troops  under  Prince 
Christian  August,  the  viceroy  of  Norway,  were 
victorious  in  many  small  skirmishes  in  the  Nor- 
wegian border  territories,  but  a  tacit  and  informal 
truce  was  arranged  when  Adlersparre  marched  to 
Stockholm  to  depose  Gustavus  IV,  March,  1809. 
Frederick  VI  planned  the  re-establishment  of  the 
old  union  between  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway 
through  his  election  as  King  of  Sweden.  He  might 
have  succeeded,  if  he  had  been  willing  to  give  up 
absolutism  and  grant  a  free  Constitution  to  all 
three  kingdoms.  Far  from  that  he  was  the  ally 
of  Russia  with  whom  he  had  secretly  schemed  to 


The  Loss  of  Norway  117 

conquer  and  retain  possession  of  South  Sweden. 
Prince  Christian  August  was  therefore  elected  heir 
to  the  Swedish  throne,  but  on  his  sudden  death 
Frederick  VI  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  throne. 
He  had  made  peace  with  Sweden  in  December, 
1809,  on  the  terms  of  status  quo. 

All  Europe  was  leagued  against  Napoleon,  and 
little  Denmark  was  his  only  faithful  ally  who  did 
not  desert  him,  even  after  his  disastrous  campaign 
in  Russia.  King  and  people  were  filled  with  re- 
sentment against  England.  The  Danish  mer- 
chantmen were  swept  off  the  seas  by  Britain,  but 
Danish  privateers  and  improvised  gunboats  seized 
many  British  ships,  their  prizes  in  1 8 10-12  being 
valued  at  nearly  four  million  pounds.  The  total 
prohibition  of  the  import  of  British  goods  and  the 
exclusion  of  all  ships  touching  at  British  ports 
ruined  trade  and  industry.  On  the  1st  of  January, 
1 81 3,  Danish  bank-notes  had  sunk  in  value  to 
one  fourteenth  of  their  face  value;  Denmark  was 
in  a  state  of  bankruptcy. 

Meanwhile  the  new  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden, 
Charles  John  (Bernadotte),  had  induced  Alexander 
I  of  Russia  to  help  him  to  win  Norway  as  a  com- 
pensation for  the  loss  of  Finland.  It  was  held  out 
to  England,  August,  18 12,  as  an  inducement  to 
agree  to  this,  that  she  might  occupy  Kronborg 
Castle  at  Elsinore  and  make  it  into  a  Gibraltar 
of  the  North.  Norway  suffered  from  famine, 
all  communications  with  Denmark  by  sea  being 
cut.     Discontent  was  rife  and  separatist  tendencies 


iiS  The  Story  of  Denmark 

were  voiced  openly.  The  heir  to  the  Danish 
throne,  Prince  Christian  Frederick,  crossed  to 
Norway  in  a  fishing  boat,  disguised  as  a  fisherman, 
May,  1813,  and  took  over  the  viceroyalty.  Hand- 
some and  splendidly  gifted,  he  became  a  great 
popular  favourite.  By  a  new  treaty  of  alliance 
with  Napoleon,  July  10,  1813,  Denmark  undertook 
to  contribute  12,500  men  to  the  French  army  in 
North  Germany. 

After  the  battle  of  Leipsic,  Bernadotte  marched 
into  Holstein.  The  Danes  fought  bravely  in  a 
skirmish  at  Sehested,  but  Frederick  VI  bowed  to 
the  inevitable.  By  the  Treaty  of  Kiel,  January 
14,  1 8 14,  he  ceded  Norway,  except  Iceland,  Green- 
land, and  the  Faroes,  to  Sweden  and  the  Isle  of 
Heligoland  to  England,  which  gave  back  the  Dan- 
ish colonies  she  had  conquered.  In  return  Den- 
mark received  Swedish  Pomerania,  Rugen,  and 
one  million  rixdollars.  Rugen  and  Pomerania 
were  exchanged  in  18 15  with  Prussia  for  the 
duchy  of  Lauenburg  and  two  million  rixdollars. 

The  impoverished  Danish  people  had  bitter 
feelings  against  the  King,  who  was  largely  to 
blame  for  these  disasters  as  he  clung  so  obsti- 
nately to  the  alliance  with  France.  Denmark  was 
dismembered  through  the  loss  of  Norway,  which 
had  been  united  with  her  for  more  than  four 
hundred  years;  she  was  utterly  humiliated  by 
the  abduction  of  her  splendid  navy,  and  she  was 
bankrupt.  Frederick  VI  personally  attended  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  in  the  hope  of  getting  better 


The  Loss  of  Norway  119 

terms  from  the  Allies;  he  did  not  succeed,  but  he 
attracted  a  good  deal  of  sympathy.  Hard-work- 
ing as  he  was  and  conscientious  according  to  his 
lights  he  was  received  like  a  victor  by  his  Danish 
subjects  on  his  return. 

It  was  a  relief  in  the  midst  of  the  prevailing 
gloom  that  literature  flourished.  The  Golden 
Age  of  Danish  literature  reached  maturity  in  the 
generation  of  1810-30.  The  names  of  Oehlen- 
schlaeger,  Grundtvig,  Baggesen,  Soren,  Kierke- 
gaard, H.  C.  Andersen  are  among  the  greatest  in 
the  history  of  Danish  literature.  But  Frederick 
VI  himself  took  no  interest  in  literature.  He  did 
his  best  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  war  and  put  the 
finances  on  a  sound  footing,  and  the  nation  began 
to  recover  slowly.  The  people  had  hoped  that 
the  King  who  had  given  freedom  to  the  peasants 
would  also  realize  the  necessity  for  giving  a  free 
Constitution  to  the  nation.  Absolutism  seemed 
to  them  to  be  out  of  date.  But  for  years  their 
hopes  were  destined  to  disappointment.  After 
the  July  Revolution,  1830,  the  stagnant  waters 
began  to  move.  In  1 831  the  King  promised  to 
establish  consultative  provincial  chambers  or 
estates.    They  began  to  sit  in  1834. 

Frederick  VI,  who  was  small  of  stature  and 
sickly,  though  hardened  by  training,  had  an  en- 
grossing interest  in  military  matters.  He  estab- 
lished a  public  school  system  for  Denmark  in 
1 8 14,  which  was  one  of  the  first  in  Europe.  The 
Court  language  had  long  been  German,  and  he 


120  The  Story  of  Denmark 

was  the  first  really  Danish  king  for  centuries. 
He  spoke  Danish  and  loved  it.  A  reaction  against 
the  use  of  German  sprung  up  among  the  Danish 
people.  German  had  been  more  frequently  used 
than  Danish  by  the  higher  officials.  The  no- 
bility conversed  in  German,  and  the  Germans  of 
the  duchies  considered  themselves  the  more  cul- 
tured and  civilized  part  of  the  monarchy.  But 
with  the  Golden  Age  of  Danish  literature  the  people 
began  to  be  proud  of  their  language  and  nationality. 
No  officials  unable  to  speak  Danish  were  any 
longer  appointed  in  Denmark  or  in  Slesvig.  King 
and  people  were  at  one  in  reinstating  and  uphold- 
ing Danish  nationality. 

The  consultative  estates  were  four,  one  for  the 
islands,  one  for  Jutland,  one  for  Slesvig,  and  one 
for  Holstein.  A  supreme  court  for  the  duchies 
was  set  up  at  Kiel  and  a  central  administration 
for  the  duchies  at  Gottorp.  This  tended  to 
strengthen  the  bonds  between  the  duchies.  It 
ran  counter  to  the  fact  that  Slesvig  was  an  old 
Danish  province  while  Holstein  was  a  German 
duchy,  governed  by  the  King  of  Denmark,  as 
Duke  of  Holstein. 

The  Liberals,  dissatisfied  with  the  consultative 
estates,  still  pressed  for  a  free  Constitution,  but 
Frederick  VI  was  a  thoroughgoing  Conservative. 
To  a  deputation  petitioning  him  against  a  pro- 
posed limitation  of  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  he 
declared:  "We  alone  can  judge  what  is  truly  for 
the  good  of  our  kingdom  and  people."     He  ab- 


The  Loss  of  Norway  121 

horred  Constitutions.  Still  he  was  sincerely 
mourned  at  his  death,  1839.  Narrow-minded 
and  obstinate,  he  was  a  hard,  honest  worker  all 
his  days.  One  may  smile  at  his  fondness  for,  and 
imitation  of,  the  militarism  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
but  his  fifty-five  years  on  the  throne  had  endeared 
him  to  his  subjects,  and  he  worked  diligently  to 
repair  the  disasters  of  his  reign.  He  had  eight 
children,  of  whom  only  two  daughters  survived 
him ;  the  elder  married  Prince  Ferdinand,  a  brother 
of  Christian  VIII;  the  younger  married  Frederick 
VII,  the  son  of  Christian  VIII. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CHRISTIAN  VIII — SLESVIG  AND  HOLSTEIN 

With  the  accession  of  Christian  VIII  a  new  era 
was  inaugurated.  Born  in  1786,  he  was  hand- 
some and  highly  gifted,  a  man  of  learning,  a  lover 
of  art  and  science.  During  his  travels  abroad  he 
met  the  beautiful  Princess  Charlotte  Frederike 
of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  He  married  her  in 
1806,  but  divorced  her  in  1809  on  account  of  her 
infidelity.  They  had  one  son,  the  later  Frederick 
VII.  As  a  prince  he  loved  Norway  and  favoured 
the  establishment  of  a  university  at  Christiania, 
in  181 1.  Frederick  VI  therefore  appointed  the 
popular  Prince  viceroy  of  Norway  in  May,  18 13, 
thinking  thus  to  knit  new  and  strong  ties  with 
his  Norwegian  subjects.  After  hairbreadth  escapes 
from  English  cruisers  Prince  Christian  landed  in 
Norway,  and  in  a  short  time  wholly  won  the  hearts 
of  the  Norwegians.  He  refused  to  accede  to  the 
Peace  of  Kiel  and  was  elected  King  of  the  restored 
kingdom  of  Norway  on  May  17,  18 14.  After  a 
reign  of  five  months  he  was  compelled  to  abdicate 
and  leave  Norway. x     Frederick,  loyal  to  his  treaty 

1  See  Norway. 

122 


Slesvig  and  Holstein  123 

engagements,  was  angry  with  the  Prince  and 
called  him  back.  After  his  return  to  Denmark 
Prince  Christian  married  Princess  Caroline  Amalie 
of  Augustenburg,  1815.  They  travelled  abroad 
for  four  years,  and  at  home  gathered  round  them- 
selves a  distinguished  circle  of  men  of  letters  and 
of  scientists.  The  Prince  was  made  a  member 
of  the  State  Council  in  1831;  he  took  a  warm  in- 
terest in  the  establishment  of  the  consultative 
chambers.  The  Liberals  felt  convinced  that  he 
would  grant  a  free  Constitution  on  his  accession, 
and  were  much  disappointed  when  he  showed  no 
intention  to  do  so,  and  even  refused  it  when  asked. 
He  re-established  the  Icelandic  Althing.1  Den- 
mark prospered  in  his  reign;  art  and  science, 
agriculture  and  manufactures  flourished  and  the 
first  railways  were  built. 

Christian  VIII  did  little  to  check  the  growing 
danger  of  a  racial  struggle  in  the  duchies;  during 
his  reign  the  relations  between  Danes  and  Ger- 
mans in  Slesvig  became  more  and  more  strained. 
Danish  policy  with  regard  to  Slesvig  had  led  to 
its  gradual  Germanization.  It  had  been  incor- 
porated in  Denmark  in  1 721,  England  and  France 
guaranteeing  to  the  Danish  Crown  the  perpetual 
possession  of  it.  South  Jutland,  as  it  was  origi- 
nally called,  had  thus  come  back  to  Denmark, 
but  it  was  no  longer  wholly  Danish.  The  Danish 
language  was  not  used  in  its  administration, 
before  the  law  courts,  or  at  church,  but,  notwith- 

*  See  Iceland. 


1 24  The  Story  of  Denmark 

standing,  the  common  people  continued  to  speak 
Danish  and  the  linguistic  frontier  between  German 
and  Danish  receded  only  slightly  northwards. 
The  Danish  kings  were  not  interested  in  main- 
taining the  Danish  language  and  nationality. 
Frederick  IV,  after  the  incorporation  of  Slesvig, 
made  no  attempt  in  this  direction.  Again  in 
1767  Catherine  II  resigned  the  claims  of  her  infant 
son  to  Gottorp  and  to  Holstein  and  ceded  them 
to  Denmark  in  exchange  for  Oldenburg  and 
Delmenhorst.  This  treaty  was  finally  ratified  in 
1773.  Still  German  continued  to  be  the  official 
language  of  Slesvig,  and  all  the  highest  posts  and 
offices  continued  to  be  held  as  formerly  by  Ger- 
mans from  the  University  of  Kiel. 

When  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  dissolved 
by  Napoleon  in  1806,  Frederick  VI,  the  Crown 
Prince  regent,  declared  Holstein  to  be  hereafter 
part  of  the  Danish  monarchy,  and,  after  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  he  entered  the  newly  established 
German  Confederation  in  his  capacity  as  Duke 
of  Holstein  and  Lauenburg.  Thus  Germany  ac- 
quired a  right  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Hol- 
stein, and,  indirectly,  of  Slesvig.  The  nobility 
of  Holstein,  who  possessed  most  of  the  landed 
estates  of  Slesvig,  promulgated  the  view  that  the 
two  duchies  had  been  united,  not  only  in  law, 
since  1386  and  1460,  but  from  time  immemorial. 

Relying  on  a  promise  given  when  the  German 
Confederation  was  established  that  all  the  states 
composing  it  were  to  be  granted   Constitutions 


Slesvig  and  Holstein  125 

the  Holstein  nobility  demanded  a  Constitution 
not  only  for  Holstein  but  also  for  Slesvig.  When 
their  request  was  refused  by  Denmark,  they 
complained  to  the  Federal  Parliament,  which, 
however,  declared  that  Slesvig  was  wholly  outside 
its  domain,  as  it  did  not  belong  to  the  German 
Confederation.  Nevertheless  the  serious  mistake 
was  committed  of  establishing  a  common  govern- 
ment for  the  duchies  at  Gottorp  and  a  court  of 
appeal,  common  for  both,  at  Kiel.  Germaniza- 
tion  went  on  apace,  aided  by  the  authorities;  the 
flood  was  only  stemmed  by  the  sturdy  and  intel- 
ligent peasantry  of  North  and  Central  Slesvig, 
who  rallied  to  patriotic  leaders  and  saved  the 
Danish  language  in  South  Jutland. 

Duke  Christian  of  Augustenburg  and  his  brother 
Prince  Frederick  of  Noer,  the  leading  family  in 
Slesvig,  were  enemies  of  Denmark.  Though 
only  great  landowners  and  not  reigning  dukes, 
they  were  related  to  the  Danish  Royal  Family. 
Their  intrigues  for  the  succession  to  the  Danish 
Crown  were  based  on  the  fact  that  the  sister  of 
Frederick  VI,  who,  though  really  Struensee  was 
her  father,  was  regarded  as  a  legitimate  Danish 
princess,  had  married  their  father  Duke  Frederick 
Christian  of  Augustenburg.  Through  their  mother 
they  had  thus  hopes  of  succeeding  to  the  Danish 
throne,  as  Frederick  VI  had  no  sons.  They  wished 
to  be  entrusted  with  governing  the  duchies,  and 
when  their  uncle  appointed  another  man  in  that 
coveted  position  they  allied  themselves  secretly 


126  The  Story  of  Denmark 

with  the  German  Separatist  party,  much  as  they 
disliked  its  democratic  tendencies.  In  1830  Uwe 
Jens  Lornsen  formulated  the  program  of  this 
party  according  to  which  the  duchies  were  inde- 
pendent and  united  states,  subject  to  the  Salic 
law,  in  personal  union  with  Denmark  under  a 
common  sovereign.  He  was  imprisoned  and 
died  in  exile  in  Germany. 

At  the  end  of  his  reign  Frederick  VI  desired  to 
learn  the  real  facts  about  the  status  of  German 
and  Danish  in  the  duchies,  and  called  for  reports, 
but  the  German  officials  acceded  to  his  wishes  in 
such  a  way  that  the  true  reports  never  reached  him. 

Christian  VIII  tried  to  hold  the  scales  evenly 
between  German  and  Danish,  in  a  vague  and 
irresolute  way.  In  1842  he  committed  the  un- 
pardonable mistake  of  appointing  Prince  Fred- 
erick of  Noer  governor  of  the  duchies  and  head 
of  the  administration  at  Gottorp.  He  may  have 
wished  to  attach  the  sympathies  of  the  Augusten- 
burg  family  to  Denmark,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
the  new  governor  became  a  centre  of  disaffection 
against  Denmark.  National  feeling  in  Denmark 
was  roused.  Peder  Hjort  Lorenzen  was  excluded 
from  the  Slesvig  Diet  in  1842  for  attempting  to 
address  it  in  Danish,  his  mother-tongue.  The 
National  Liberal  party  in  Denmark  now  turned 
all  its  sympathies  to  Sweden  and  Norway.  United 
Scandinavia  was  its  program.  But  Christian 
VIII  did  not  look  with  friendly  eyes  on  this  new 
"  Scandinavism. " 


Slesvig  and  Holstein  127 

To  pacify  the  Germans  and  prevent  quarrels 
in  the  consultative  chambers,  he  decreed  in  1844 
that  deputies  were  permitted  to  speak  Danish  in 
the  Diet  of  Slesvig  only  if  they  were  able  to  prove 
that  they  were  not  conversant  with  German. 
The  Danes  were  angry  at  this  decree.  Europe 
must  now  think,  they  said,  that  Slesvig  was  a 
wholly  German  country.  The  decree  did  not 
even  satisfy  the  Germans  in  the  duchies.  The 
Danes  in  Slesvig  realized  that  they  must  depend 
upon  their  own  strength,  if  their  Danish  nation- 
ality was  not  to  be  utterly  lost. 

The  Slesvig-Holstein  Separatists  held  that 
only  the  male  line  of  the  Danish  royal  family 
were  the  rightful  heirs  to  the  duchies.  The 
question  of  the  succession  was  highly  important, 
as  Christian  VIII  had  only  one  son,  the  later 
Frederick  VII,  and  he  had  been  twice  divorced 
without  having  any  children  in  either  of  his  two 
marriages.  Since  there  were  no  other  male 
members  of  the  royal  family,  it  was  necessary 
to  elect  the  nearest  successor  of  a  female  line, 
unless  the  Crown  Prince  had  issue.  The  Separat- 
ists pointed  out  that  consequently  the  Duke  of 
Augustenburg  was  the  rightful  heir  to  the  duchies, 
as  a  male  descendant  of  the  ducal  line  of  the  royal 
house.  Christian  VIII,  anticipating  this  danger, 
published  an  open  letter  in  1846  to  the  effect  that, 
as  the  result  of  an  examination  by  a  Commission 
of  the  question  of  the  succession,  the  order  of 
succession  in  Denmark  was  valid  for  Slesvig  and 


128  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Lauenburg,  but  doubtful  as  regards  Holstein. 
He  also  promised  not  to  change  the  old  Consti- 
tution of  Slesvig  or  its  union  with  Holstein. 
This  declaration  caused  much  discontent.  The 
Duke  of  Augustenburg  protested  against  it,  and 
the  Prince  of  Noer  resigned  as  governor  of  the 
duchies.  The  Holstein  Diet  complained,  though 
in  vain,  to  the  German  Confederation.  The 
Separatists  took  the  royal  declaration  as  a  re- 
cognition of  their  claims.  Christian  VIII  at  last 
saw  the  necessity  for  granting  a  free  Constitution, 
and  he  was  planning  it  when  he  died,  January, 
1848. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FREDERICK  VII — THE    CONSTITUTIONAL  MONARCHY 
— THE   FIRST   SLESVIG  WAR 

His  only  son  of  the  marriage  with  Charlotte 
Frederike  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  succeeded 
him,  thirty-nine  years  old,  as  Frederick  VII  (1848- 
63).  His  parents  had  been  divorced,  and  when 
his  father  was  viceroy  of  Norway  the  good-natured 
but  wilful  boy  was  handed  to  strangers  who  were 
unfit  to  educate  him.  When  his  father  remarried 
and  went  on  long  journeys,  he  was  again  spoiled 
and  pampered  and  petted  by  his  supposed  tutors. 
He  was  sent  abroad  to  complete  his  education, 
but  with  his  ingrained  hatred  of  learning  and 
books  and  lessons,  all  he  learned  was  new  pleasures. 
In  1828  he  married  his  cousin,  Vilhelmine,  the 
daughter  of  Frederick  VI.  Their  marriage  was 
very  unhappy.  They  had  no  issue,  and  he  be- 
haved so  rudely  to  his  gentle  and  kindly  wife  that 
Frederick  VI  separated  them  after  a  six  years' 
marriage  and  they  were  divorced.  He  was  sent 
in  exile  to  Iceland,  and  then  to  a  garrison  in 
Jutland.  Christian  VIII,  his  father,  called  him 
back,  on  his  accession,  and  made  him  a  member  of 
9  129 


130  The  Story  of  Denmark 

the  State  Council.  In  1841  he  married  Princess 
Marianne  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  This  mar- 
riage also  proved  unhappy.  He  fell  in  love  with 
a  ballet  girl,  Louise  Rasmussen,  and  at  the  same 
time  formed  an  intimate  friendship  with  her 
lover,  Berling,  who  became  his  private  secretary. 
His  wife  left  Denmark,  1844,  and  they  were 
divorced,  1846.  Unworthy  as  these  relations  were 
of  the  future  King  of  Denmark,  yet  that  simple 
girl  and  her  friend  prevented  him  from  sinking 
lower  in  the  scale  of  degradation. 

When  he  ascended  the  throne  he  wanted  to 
marry  Louise,  but  this  was  prevented  by  his 
ministers.  In  1850,  however,  he  created  her 
Countess  Danner  and  married  her,  in  defiance  of 
his  ministers.  She  influenced  him  strongly  in  a 
democratic  direction,  and  his  rough  good-nature 
and  accessibility  won  him  the  love  of  the  people, 
in  spite  of  his  vices.  He  had  often  expostulated 
with  his  father  for  his  delay  in  granting  a  Consti- 
tution and  had  himself  drafted  one  on  1847. 

On  his  accession,  January,  1848,  Frederick  VII 
asked  his  father's  Ministry  to  continue  in  office. 
He  was  determined  to  grant  a  free  Constitution; 
this  had  been  his  dying  father's  last  advice  to 
him.  Already,  on  January  28,  1848,  he  made 
known  his  intention  to  give  a  free  Constitution, 
common  to  all  parts  of  the  monarchy.  But  it 
pleased  neither  the  Danes  nor  the  German  Sepa- 
ratists, the  "Slesvig-Holsteiners,"  as  they  were 
called. 


The  Constitutional  Monarchy      131 

Open  insurrection  broke  out  at  Kiel  in  March, 
1848,  instigated  by  the  success  of  the  revolution  in 
Germany;  a  provisional  Government  was  formed, 
the  claims  of  Slesvig-Holstein  as  a  single  consti- 
tutional state  within  the  German  Confederation 
were  formulated,  and  deputies  were  sent  to  Copen- 
hagen to  lay  them  before  the  King.  Meanwhile 
the  citizens  of  Copenhagen  demonstrated  in  a 
body  before  the  Royal  Palace  against  the  Ministry, 
and  their  address  to  the  absolute  monarch  closed 
with  these  words:  "We  implore  Your  Majesty 
not  to  force  the  nation  to  the  self-help  of  despair." 
The  King  yielded,  declared  he  would  lead  the 
Danish  people  on  the  paths  of  freedom  and  honour, 
and  appointed  a  new  Ministry  whose  program 
was  to  make  Slesvig  to  the  River  Eider  an  integral 
part  of  Denmark  and  to  grant  a  democratic 
Constitution.  The  constitutional  demands  went 
farther  than  he  had  intended,  but  he  divested 
himself  of  his  absolute  power  with  good  grace 
and  became  the  first  constitutional  King  of  Den- 
mark. The  Constitution  was  delayed  because 
of  the  rebellion  in  the  duchies.  The  Slesvig- 
Holsteiners  desired  to  belong  to  the  great  German 
Fatherland,  where  the  revolution  had  triumphed; 
they  made  no  distinction  in  that  respect  between 
the  half-Danish  Slesvig  and  the  wholly  German 
Holstein ;  both  were  to  become  part  of  the  German 
Confederation. 

The  Prince  of  Noer  was  a  member  of  the  pro- 
visional Government  at  Kiel  while  the  Duke  of 


132  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Augustenburg  was  persuading  the  King  of  Prussia 
to  regain  his  popularity  by  taking  up  the  cause  of 
the  Slesvig-Holsteiners.  The  rebels  occupied  the 
fortress  of  Rendsburg  without  resistance  as  the  Ger- 
man-speaking troops  of  the  duchies  deserted  their 
Danish  commander,  but  they  were  badly  beaten  on 
April  9,  1848,  by  the  Danes  at  Bov,  near  Flensborg, 
in  Slesvig.  Prussian  and  German  Federal  troops 
and  volunteers,  under  Wrangel,  now  marched  into 
Slesvig,  and  Wrangel  with  thirty  thousand  men 
beat  ten  thousand  Danes  in  the  hard-fought 
battle  of  Slesvig,  on  Easter  Day,  April  23,  1848. 
The  Danes  retired  to  Dybbol  and  the  island  of 
Als  while  the  rest  of  Slesvig  was  occupied.  Den- 
mark appealed  to  the  guarantors  of  the  union  of 
Slesvig  with  Denmark  proper ;  England  and  Russia, 
with  a  view  to  prevent  the  rise  of  German  naval 
power  in  the  fine  ports  of  the  duchies,  protested 
at  Berlin,  and  Sweden-Norway  transported  fifteen 
thousand  men  to  Funen;  they  were  to  join  in  the 
war  if  Denmark  proper  were  invaded.  A  men- 
acing Russian  note  caused  Wrangel  to  evacuate  in 
a  hurry  the  part  of  Jutland^  he  had  occupied. 
Prussia  and  Germany  suffered  from  the  severe 
Danish  blockade  of  their  Baltic  and  North  Sea 
ports  and  the  capture  of  their  merchantmen,  and 
concluded  a  seven  months'  armistice  with  Den- 
mark in  August,  1848,  at  Malmo.  The  duchies 
were  to  be  evacuated  by  the  troops  of  the  con- 
tending parties  and  to  be  governed  by  a  mixed 
Commission  of  five  members.    But  the  Slesvig- Hpl- 


The  First  Slesvig  War  133 

steiners  had  it  all  their  own  way  and  some  Danish 
peasants  rose  against  their  oppression.  Denmark 
therefore  denounced  the  armistice  and  the  war 
was  renewed  on  April  3,  1849.  Superior  Federal 
forces  reoccupied  Slesvig  and,  partly,  Jutland,  and 
a  Slesvig-Holsteiner  army  invested  Fredericia. 
The  garrison  at  last  made  a  sally  on  July  6th  and 
captured  the  entrenchments  of  the  rebels,  with 
all  their  artillery  and  two  thousand  prisoners; 
the  Danish  loss  was  two  thousand  men  and  the 
brave  General  Rye.  An  armistice  was  then 
concluded.  Slesvig  was  to  be  administered  by  a 
joint  Commission  composed  of  one  Dane,  one 
Prussian,  and  one  Englishman,  North  Slesvig  to 
be  occupied  by  Swedish-Norwegian  troops,  South 
Slesvig  by  Prussian  troops.  The  joint  administra- 
tion of  Slesvig  and  Holstein  ceased  to  exist.  But, 
gradually,  with  the  secret  connivance  of  Prussia, 
the  Slesvig-Holsteiners  reduced  the  Commission 
to  impotence  and  helplessness.  Under  pressure 
from  Russia  and  Austria,  Prussia  made  peace  with 
Denmark  on  July  2,  1850,  at  Berlin;  the  status 
quo  ante  helium  was  to  be  restored  and  all  ante- 
cedent rights  to  be  reserved.  The  rebels,  left 
to  their  own  resources  and  reinforced  by  numerous 
German  officers  and  volunteers,  invaded  Slesvig. 
At  Isted  their  army,  33,000  men  under  the  Prus- 
sian General  Willisen,  was  wholly  beaten  in  a 
bloody  and  obstinate  battle,  July  25,  1850,  by 
38,000  Danes.  This  victory  cost  the  Danes 
3600  men.     After  heavy  losses  sustained  by  the 


i54  The  Story  of  Denmark 

rebels  at  the  siege  of  Frederikstad  their  army 
dissolved,  and  the  Three  Years'  War,  the  first 
Slesvig  War,  was  at  an  end.  The  German  Con- 
federation was  ready  to  carry  out  the  Peace  of 
Berlin.  Holstein  was  governed  ad  interim  by 
Austro-Prussian  commissioners.  The  difficulty  of 
administering  Slesvig  had  become  more  serious 
as  the  German  nationalism  in  South  Slesvig  had 
been  strengthened  by  the  war.  The  customs 
frontier  of  Denmark  was  moved  from  the  river 
separating  Slesvig  and  Denmark  south  to  the 
Eider  River,  the  frontier  of  Slesvig  and  Holstein. 
The  common  administration  of  the  duchies  was 
abolished.  Slesvig  had  her  own  minister  and  her 
own  court  of  appeal  at  Flensborg.  Many  Danes 
were  appointed  in  the  places  of  disloyal  officials 
who  had  been  dismissed. 

Denmark  had  emerged  victorious  from  a  war 
with  Germany,  and  she  hastened  to  repair  past 
mistakes.  Formerly  German  had  been  the  official 
language  at  church,  in  the  schools,  and  before  the 
law  courts,  even  where  the  population  was  wholly 
Danish.  Slesvig  was  now  divided  into  three 
linguistic  districts  or  belts,  to  be  administered 
separately — one  purely  Danish,  one  purely  Ger- 
man, and  a  mixed  or  bilingual  district.  It  was 
unavoidable  that  the  linguistic  frontier  should  in 
some  places  be  somewhat  arbitrary.  Complaints, 
mainly  exaggerated  and  unfounded,  reached  Ger- 
many of  Danish  tyranny  and  superciliousness. 
The  national   self-confidence  of  the  Danes  had 


The  First  Slesvig  War  135 

been  heightened  by  a  victorious  war,  and  they 
wished  to  set  free  again  the  down-trodden  Danish 
nationality  in  Germanized  Slesvig  which  was 
originally  wholly  Danish. 

Meanwhile  a  constituent  assembly  had  been 
sitting  at  Copenhagen  October,  1848,  to  June, 
1849,  to  work  out  the  free  Constitution  of  Den- 
mark, and  the  new  "Fundamental  Law,"  which 
made  Denmark  one  of  the  freest  countries  in 
Europe,  was  signed  by  the  King  on  June  5,  1849. 
The  absolute  King,  in  full  harmony  with  his 
people,  surrendered  his  absolute  power,  of  his  own 
free  will.  He  took  as  his  motto,  "The  love  of  my 
people  is  my  strength,"  and  the  people  in  their 
enthusiasm  overlooked  his  many  faults. 

The  members  of  the  Lower  House  (Folkething) 
were  to  be  elected  through  a  general  franchise, 
those  of  the  Upper  House  (Landsthing)  partly  to 
be  elected  by  a  limited  electorate  with  a  high 
census,  partly  to  be  nominated  by  the  Crown. 
All  the  privileges  of  the  Danish  nobility  were 
abolished. 

By  means  of  an  exchange  of  notes  in  185 1-2 
Denmark  came  to  an  agreement  on  January  28, 
1852,  with  Austria  and  Prussia.  Denmark,  Sles- 
vig, Holstein,  and  Lauenburg  were  each  of  them 
to  have  a  separate  administration  but  also  a  com- 
mon Constitution  for  affairs  common  to  the  whole 
monarchy.  Slesvig  and  Holstein  were  to  be  quite 
separate,  but  Slesvig  was  not  to  be  incorporated 
in  Denmark.     This  was  accepted  as  a  satisfactory 


136  The  Story  of  Denmark 

basis  of  the  future  Constitution  of  the  monarchy 
and  Holstein  was  then  restored  to  Denmark. 
A  common  Constitution  for  the  Danish  monarchy 
was  elaborated  in  1855,  but  on  the  representation 
of  the  German  Powers  it  was  repealed  as  regards 
Holstein  and  Lauenburg  in  1858.  The  Eider 
policy,  according  to  which  the  frontier  of  Denmark 
proper  was  the  south  frontier  of  Slesvig,  the  River 
Eider,  was  the  lodestar  of  the  Danish  National 
Liberals,  who  carried  the  country  with  them. 
The  "Unitary"  party,  who  were  in  favour  of 
placing  Holstein  in  the  same  relation  to  Denmark 
as  Slesvig,  and  linking  the  whole  monarchy  to- 
gether by  a  common  Constitution,  had  lost  their 
hold  on  the  Danish  people. 

As  Frederick  VII  had  no  children  and  was  the 
last  scion  of  the  Oldenburg  family,  the  succession 
to  the  throne  had  to  be  provided  for.  At  a  Con- 
gress of  the  Great  Powers  in  London  Prince  Chris- 
tian of  Slesvig  -  Holstein  -  Sonderborg  -  Gliicksborg 
was  accepted  as  heir  to  the  throne  of  Denmark, 
May  8,  1852.  The  Duke  of  Augustenburg  re- 
signed his  claims  in  return  for  a  money  payment. 
The  Tsar  of  Russia  had  already  renounced  his 
claims.  Charlotte,  landgravine  of  Hesse,  sister 
of  Christian  VIII,  transferred  her  rights  to  the 
throne  and  those  of  her  son,  Prince  Frederick, 
to  her  daughter  Louise,  who  had  been  married  to 
Prince  Christian  in  1842,  and  transferred  all  her 
rights  to  her  husband.  On  July  31,  1853,  Fred- 
erick VII  signed  a  bill,  vesting  the  succession  to 


The  First  Slesvig  War  137 

the  Crown  in  Christian,  "Prince  of  Denmark," 
and  his  heirs  male. 

Endless  squabbles  with  the  German  powers 
about  the  relations  of  the  duchies  followed.  The 
steady  British  support  of  Denmark  was  weakened 
by  the  strong  German  sympathies  of  Queen  Victo- 
ria and  the  Prince  Consort.  Finally  Hall,  Danish 
Premier,  1857-63,  proposed  to  cut  the  Gordian 
knot  by  detaching  Holstein  and  giving  a  common 
Constitution  to  Denmark  and  Slesvig.  Germany 
considered  this  a  breach  of  the  conventions  of 
1851-2.  This  so-called  November  Constitution 
was  passed  by  the  Chambers  on  November  13, 
1863.  Two  days  later  Frederick  VII  died,  with- 
out having  signed  it,  at  a  fateful  hour  in  the 
history  of  Denmark. 

His  reign  was  a  happy  time  for  Denmark. 
There  were  no  internal  dissensions.  The  people 
were  full  of  vigour  and  enthusiasm  for  their  new- 
born freedom.  King  and  people  were  as  one. 
Trade  and  commerce  progressed  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  Sweden-Norway  was  a  faithful  ally 
against  German  aggression.  It  is  true  the  King's 
morganatic  marriage,  which  was  celebrated  by 
the  Bishop  of  Sjaelland,  was  extremely  unpopular. 
The  Danish  nobility  did  not  appear  at  court,  and 
his  secretary,  Berling,  was  sent  away,  owing  to 
demonstrations  in  Copenhagen.  Frederick  VII 
died  on  a  visit  to  Glucksborg,  November  15,  1863, 
mourned  by  his  people. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

CHRISTIAN  IX  AND  HIS   SUCCESSORS — THE  LOSS   OF 
SLESVIG CONSTITUTIONAL     STRUGGLES 

His  successor,  Christian  IX,  was  born  at  the 
Castle  of  Gottorp  on  April  8,  1818.  His  parents 
were  Duke  Wilhelm  of  Slesvig-Holstein-Sonder- 
borg-Glucksborg  and  Princess  Louise  of  Hesse, 
a  sister  of  the  queen  of  Frederick  VI  and  a  grand- 
daughter of  Frederick  V.  This  ducal  line,  the 
Sonderborg  line,  descended  from  Duke  Hans  the 
Younger  (fi622),  a  son  of  Christian  III.  Christian 
IX  was  thus  distantly  related  to  the  Oldenburg 
family.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  who  was  an 
officer  in  the  Danish  army  (1831),  Frederick  VI 
became  the  guardian  of  the  Prince  and  his  eight 
brothers  and  sisters.  He  entered  the  army, 
1835;  in  1848  his  eldest  brother,  Charles,  bore 
arms  against  Denmark  while  he  himself  was  faith- 
ful to  king  and  country.  The  London  protocol, 
in  virtue  of  which  he  ascended  the  throne,  is  to 
the  effect  that :  ' '  Since  the  preservation  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Danish  monarchy  is  of  high  import- 
ance for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  whereas 
an  arrangement  which,   excluding  females,  vests 

138 


The  Loss  of  Slesvig  139 

the  succession  in  all  the  countries  now  united 
under  the  sceptre  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  would 
be  the  best  means  to  assure  the  integrity  of  this 
monarchy,"  the  Great  Powers  and  Sweden- 
Norway  bound  themselves,  in  case  of  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  male  line  of  Frederick  III,  to  recognize 
Prince  Christian  and  his  direct  male  descendants 
by  his  marriage  with  Princess  Louise  as  "heirs 
to  the  throne  in  all  the  countries  now  united  under 
the  sceptre  of  the  King  of  Denmark." 

Christian  IX  ascended  the  throne  under  diffi- 
cult circumstances.  The  victorious  war  of  1848-50 
had  inspired  the  Danish  people  with  overcon- 
fidence.  The  defences  of  the  country  and  the 
equipment  of  the  army  had  been  wholly  neglected. 
The  Prussian  army  had  just  been  armed  with  a 
new  rifle.  Those  who  ventured  to  call  attention 
to  the  hard  facts  and  counsel  a  yielding  mood  were 
denounced  as  traitors.  Christian  IX  realized 
that  his  signature  of  the  November  Constitution 
would  cause  a  war  with  Prussia  and  Germany. 
The  ambassadors  of  the  Great  Powers  informed 
him  that  he  could  expect  no  assistance  on  their 
part  if  he  signed  and  war  broke  out  in  consequence. 
For  three  days  the  King  refused  to  sign,  but  the 
pressure  of  the  National  Liberal  Cabinet  of  Hall 
and  demonstrations  in  Copenhagen  forced  him  to 
do  so  on  November  18th  rather  than  abdicate. 
The  Danes  thought  his  refusal  was  owing  to  his 
German  sympathies,  and  for  a  time  he  was  ex- 
tremely unpopular.     Posterity  has  done  him  jus- 


140  The  Story  of  Denmark 

tice ;  he  was  more  clear-sighted  than  his  ministers. 
Bismarck,  now  Prussian  Premier,  and  the  German 
Confederation  demanded  the  withdrawal  of  the 
November  Constitution,  the  Duke  of  Augusten- 
burg  transferred  the  rights  he  had  solemnly 
renounced  in  1852  to  his  son  who  proclaimed 
himself  Frederick  VIII,  Duke  of  Slesvig-Holstein, 
and  German  troops  occupied  Holstein  without 
resistance  from  the  Danes,  December,  1863. 
The  Federal  execution  was  in  consequence  of  the 
denial  of  the  right  of  Christian  IX  to  succeed  in 
the  duchies.  Bismarck  then  induced  Austria 
to  join  Prussia  in  occupying  Slesvig  as  a  pledge 
for  the  observation  by  Denmark  of  the  conven- 
tions of  1 85 1-2.  The  new  Cabinet  of  Monrad 
in  Denmark  remained  defiant  in  the  hope  of  joint 
intervention  by  England  and  France,  but  Napoleon 
III  refused  the  armed  intervention  proposed  by 
Palmerston.  Bismarck,  who,  as  he  declared  later 
in  his  Memoirs,  always  meant  to  annex  the  duchies 
to  Prussia,  sent  a  forty-eight  hours'  ultimatum  to 
Copenhagen  within  which  time  the  November 
Constitution  was  to  be  withdrawn.  An  Austro- 
Prussian  army  of  56,000  men  crossed  the  Eider 
on  February  1,  1864.  A  Danish  army  of  40,000 
men  stood  behind  the  Danevirke,  badly  armed 
and  equipped;  for  fear  of  being  surrounded  it 
retreated  secretly  during  the  night  between 
February  5th  and  6th  in  severe  winter  weather. 
The  Austrians  hurried  in  pursuit,  and  one  Danish 
brigade  held  the  enemy  at  bay  with  great  bravery 


The  Loss  of  Slesvig  141 

while  the  army  got  safely  away  to  Sundeved 
and  Als;  part  of  it  retreated  to  North  Jutland. 
The  Danes  worked  hard  at  the  unfinished  trenches 
at  Dybbol,  where  they  defended  themselves  with 
admirable  courage  and  stubbornness  for  over  two 
months,  outnumbered,  outranged  by  artillery 
and  rifles  far  superior  to  theirs.  In  March,  1864, 
England  invited  the  signatories  of  the  Treaty  of 
London  to  a  peace  conference  in  London,  but 
Austria  and  Prussia  refused  to  negotiate  till 
Dybbol  had  been  stormed.  At  the  end  of  March 
the  Allies  made  an  unsuccessful  attack  on  the 
trenches.  On  April  2d  a  regular  bombardment 
began  which  utterly  demolished  the  Danish  en- 
trenchments. The  Danish  commander-in-chief 
was  prohibited  by  the  ministry  at  Copenhagen, 
for  political  reasons,  from  retiring  his  worn-out 
troops  from  Dybbol  to  the  island  of  Als.  On 
April  1 8th  overwhelming  Prussian  forces  stormed 
the  Danish  entrenchments,  now  mere  rubbish- 
heaps.  It  was  a  hard-contested  struggle;  the 
Danish  loss  was  4700  in  killed,  wounded,  and  pris- 
oners, the  Prussian,  1200;  but  the  brave  defence 
of  the  bridgehead  leading  to  Als  enabled  the 
army  to  escape  to  the  island. 

A  peace  conference  assembled  in  London  on 
April  25th,  and  an  armistice  was  concluded  on 
May  9th.  That  very  day  a  Danish  squadron 
under  Admiral  Suenson  defeated  a  Prusso-Austrian 
squadron  under  TegethofT  off  Heligoland.  At 
the  conference  Prussia  and  Austria  proposed  a 


142  The  Story  of  Denmark 

personal  union  between  Denmark  and  the  duchies. 
This  was  rejected  by  Denmark,  and  so  were  the 
various  proposals  by  England,  by  France,  and 
by  Germany  for  the  partition  of  Slesvig  and  its 
delimitation  into  a  German  and  a  Danish  Slesvig. 
On  May  12th  Prussia  and  Austria  declared  them- 
selves no  longer  bound  by  the  London  Treaty  of 
1852  after  the  war.  They  now  proposed  that  the 
duchies  should  be  governed  by  the  Duke  of 
Augustenburg  as  a  state  in  the  German  Confedera- 
tion. As  no  agreement  was  reached  war  was 
resumed  on  June  26th.  At  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  June  29th  Prussian  troops  crossed  in 
flat-bottomed  boats  to  the  island  of  Als,  and  the 
little  Danish  army  evacuated  the  island  with  a 
loss  of  three  thousand  men.  All  Jutland  to  the 
Skaw  was  then  occupied  by  the  allied  troops. 
Denmark,  foiled  in  her  hopes  of  European  inter- 
vention, had  to  sue  for  peace,  which  was  finally 
signed  at  Vienna,  October  30,  1864.  Denmark 
ceded  Slesvig,  Holstein,  and  Lauenburg — that 
is,  more  than  two  fifths  of  her  territory  and 
population. 

Prussia  and  Austria  then  maintained  that  the 
duchies,  now  theirs  by  right  of  conquest,  had 
rightfully  belonged  to  the  Danish  Crown  and  not 
to  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg.  Prussia  was  to 
administer  Slesvig  and  Austria  Holstein,  but 
after  the  war  of  1866  Austria,  by  the  Treaty  of 
Prague,  ceded  all  her  rights  to  Prussia.  Napo- 
leon III  intervened,  with  the  result  that  paragraph 


Constitutional  Struggles  143 

V  of  the  Treaty  of  Prague  reads  as  follows:  "His 
Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Austria  transfers  to  His 
Majesty  the  King  of  Prussia  all  the  rights  acquired 
by  him  in  the  Peace  of  Vienna,  October  30,  1864, 
to  the  duchies  of  Slesvig  and  Hoi  stein,  with  the 
reservation  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  northern 
districts  of  Slesvig  shall  be  reunited  to  Denmark 
if,  by  a  free  plebiscite,  they  express  the  wish 
therefor." 

This  paragraph  is  the  great  hope  to  which  the 
Danes  in  Slesvig  cling,  even  to-day.  After  the 
Franco-German  War  (1870-71)  Prussia  had  her 
hands  free,  and,  without  consulting  Denmark  or 
the  Danish  population  in  Slesvig,  came  to  an 
agreement  with  Austria  in  1878  to  rescind  the 
promise  in  paragraph  V  of  the  Prague  Treaty  to 
retrocede  North  Slesvig.  In  spite  of  the  abroga- 
tion of  paragraph  V  the  hopes  of  140,000  Danes 
in  Slesvig  are  still  centred  in  it.  Under  such 
leaders  as  Gustav  Johannsen,  J.  Jessen,  and  H.  P. 
Hansen,  this  fine  peasantry  not  only  held  its  own 
against  attempts  at  Germanization,  but  actually 
gained  ground.  They  were  forbidden  to  use 
their  mother-tongue  at  school,  at  church,  in  the 
law  courts;  they  were  forbidden  to  sing  Danish 
songs,  to  wear  Danish  colours;  Danish  lecturers 
and  actors  were  expelled.  All  this  petty  persecu- 
tion was  like  fuel  that  made  the  fire  of  their 
patriotism  burn  all  the  brighter. 

In  the  Peace  of  Vienna,  1864,  it  was  decided, 
in    paragraph    XIX,   that  the    Danes  in  Slesvig 


144  The  Story  of  Denmark 

were  to  be  permitted  to  "opt" — i.  e.,  choose 
whether  they  desired  to  be  Danish  or  Prussian 
subjects,  within  six  years — *".  e.,  till  1870.  If  they 
should  elect  to  be  Danish  subjects,  they  were 
to  be  considered  Danish  immigrants,  settled  in 
Prussia  but  not  naturalized.  Many  Danes 
"opted"  for  Danish  citizenship  and  crossed  the 
frontier,  in  expectation  of  the  plebiscite  promised 
in  1866.  After  the  abrogation  of  paragraph  V 
in  1878  most  of  them  returned  to  their  lands 
and  estates  in  Slesvig.  Thereby  they  lost  their 
Danish  citizenship,  and  could  not,  after  1870, 
acquire  Prussian  citizenship.  These  unhappy 
"homeless"  people,  as  the  Germans  called  them, 
became  the  victims  of  the  violent  Germanization 
of  Slesvig.  They  possessed  no  political  rights 
and  were  treated  like  "outlaws,"  at  the  mercy  of 
German  officials  who,  if  they  showed  the  slightest 
sign  of  sympathy  with  the  Danish  national  move- 
ment, molested  them  with  domiciliary  visits  and 
expulsions  over  the  frontier  at  twenty-four  hours' 
notice  or  less.  This  disability  was  transmitted 
to  their  children.  Parents  and  children  on  either 
side  of  the  frontier  were  prohibited  from  visiting 
each  other.  The  notorious  von  Koller,  Governor 
of  Slesvig-Holstein,  1 898-1 900,  expelled  no  less 
than  one  thousand  people  of  the  poorer  classes. 
Feelings  between  Danes  and  Germans  were  daily 
embittered,  and  people  in  Denmark  at  times  boy- 
cotted German  goods  to  express  their  displeasure. 
At  last,  after  the  visit  of  Frederick  VIII  to  Berlin 


Constitutional  Struggles  145 

in  1906,  the  "Optant"  convention  between  Den- 
mark and  Prussia,  signed  on  January  n,  1907, 
put  an  end  to  this  intolerable  state  of  things. 
The  children  and  descendants  of  Danish  optants 
were  to  have  the  right  to  acquire  Prussian  citizen- 
ship. Thus  there  will  be  no  optants  after  the 
present  generation.  No  less  than  four  thousand 
at  once  became  Prussian  citizens.  The  Germans, 
embittered  by  this  strengthening  of  the  Danish 
element  in  Slesvig,  redoubled  their  efforts.  They 
bought  Danish  estates  and  settled  Germans  on 
them.  But  the  stubborn  Danes  checked  all  their 
moves  by  counter-moves.  Every  new  election 
shows  that  North  Slesvig  is  more  Danish  than  it 
ever  was  in  its  history  before.  The  last  German 
move  is  to  enforce  the  use  of  the  German  language 
at  all  public  meetings,  though  a  delay  of  some 
years  is  granted  in  the  Danish  districts  before 
Danish  is  prohibited  at  meetings  there. 

The  loss  of  Slesvig  necessitated  the  revision  of 
the  Constitution.  The  revised  Fundamental  Law 
of  June  5,  1849,  was  promulgated  on  July  28, 
1866.  It  sowed  the  seeds  of  future  discord. 
The  electoral  right  for  the  Upper  House  was 
restricted  and  complicated,  and  equal  powers 
were  given  to  the  two  Houses  on  the  joint  Finance 
Committee  in  case  of  disagreement  between  them 
on  the  Budget.  This  reactionary  revision  of  the 
Constitution  caused  the  Danish  democracy  to 
engage  in  a  long  struggle  to  assert  the  supremacy 
of   the  Folkething  over  the  Upper  House,   the 


146  The  Story  of  Denmark 

Landsthing.  This  began  in  1872,  when  the 
democratic  parties  adopted  the  name  "the  Left," 
the  Conservatives  calling  themselves  "the  Right" 
party.  For  nineteen  years  (1875-94)  J.  B.  S. 
Estrup  governed  Denmark  against  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  the  Folkething,  supported  by  the 
King  and  the  Landsthing.  He  tried  to  establish 
the  complete  equality  of  the  two  Houses,  and  he 
fortified  Copenhagen  with  money  which  had  been, 
not  voted  but  refused,  by  Parliament.  All  legisla- 
tion was  paralysed  and  at  a  standstill,  and  provi- 
sional financial  decrees  took  the  place  of  budgets 
rejected  by  the  Folkething,  more  than  four  fifths 
of  which  were  in  opposition  to  him  in  1884  and 
subsequent  years.  There  was  talk  of  a  revolu- 
tion, and  some  people  refused  to  pay  taxes  which 
had  not  been  granted  by  Parliament ;  an  unsuccess- 
ful attempt  was  made  on  the  life  of  the  Premier. 
Finally,  in  1894,  the  Opposition  made  a  compro- 
mise with  Estrup.  He  was  to  retire,  but  the  illegal 
use  of  money  to  fortify  Copenhagen,  and  the 
provisional  financial  decrees,  were  to  be  regular- 
ized. One  Conservative  Ministry  succeeded  the 
other  in  1 894-1 901,  and  the  struggle  between  the 
two  Houses  continued.  While  the  "Right"  (Con- 
servative) party  disintegrated  more  and  more, 
the  "Left"  grew  stronger  in  the  country  at  every 
election.  At  last  Christian  IX  consented  to  ask 
Deuntzer  to  form  a  Ministry  of  the  "Left,"  the 
first  parliamentary  Cabinet  in  Denmark.  The 
new   Government   proposed   to   sell   the   Danish 


Constitutional  Struggles  147 

West  Indies,  St.  Croix,  St.  Thomas,  and  St.  Jean, 
to  the  United  States,  but  the  Bill  was  rejected  by 
the  Landsthing  in  1902  by  an  even  vote.  Differ- 
ences between  the  Radical  and  Moderate  members 
of  the  Cabinet  came  to  a  head  in  January,  1905, 
when  Deuntzer  and  three  of  his  Radical  colleagues 
resigned.  J.  C.  Christensen,  as  Premier,  recon- 
structed the  Cabinet  and  also  took  over  himself 
the  Ministry  of  Defence  (the  Army  and  Navy). 
The  Radical  members  of  the  "Left"  formed  the 
Opposition  against  the  Government,  which  in 
their  opinion  was  too  prone  to  compromise  with 
the  Conservatives. 

Christian  IX  died  suddenly,  on  January  29, 
1906,  in  his  eighty-eighth  year,  full  of  days  and  of 
honours,  happy  in  the  love  of  his  people.  Fred- 
erick VIII,  popular  in  his  youth,  was  sixty-three 
years  old  on  his  accession;  he,  also,  suffered  from 
a  weak  heart.  He  had  married  Louise,  the  only 
child  of  Charles  XV  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  in 
1869,  and  they  had  four  sons  and  four  daughters. 
His  eldest  son  is  the  present  King  of  Denmark, 
Christian  X,  his  second  son  Charles,  King  of 
Norway  since  1905  as  Haakon  VII,  married  to 
Princess  Maud  of  England.  Crown  Prince  Fred- 
erick was  called  home  from  his  studies  at  Oxford 
University  when  Christian  IX  ascended  the  throne 
1863;  he  was  in  Slesvig  during  the  war,  and  was 
for  years  a  member  of  the  State  Council.  Fred- 
erick VIII  continued  the  policy  which  his  father 
inaugurated  in  1901,  and  was  a  strenuous  upholder 


148  The  Story  of  Denmark 

of  parliamentarism.  By  a  visit  to  Sweden  he 
tried  to  conciliate  the  Swedish  people,  whose 
feelings  had  been  ruffled  through  the  acceptance 
of  the  throne  of  Norway  by  his  son.  He  induced 
the  Icelandic  Althing  to  visit  Denmark  and  a 
Dano-Icelandic  Commission  was  appointed  to 
determine  the  constitutional  relations  between 
Denmark  and  Iceland,  but  the  result  of  its  labours 
was  not  accepted  by  the  people  of  Iceland  at  a 
subsequent  election.  He  visited  Iceland  with 
forty  members  of  the  Danish  Parliament  and 
enjoyed  a  larger  measure  of  popularity  there 
than  any  Danish  king. 

The  elections  of  1906  increased  the  parliamen- 
tary strength  of  the  Radicals  and  the  Socialists, 
and  the  Cabinet  of  J.  C.  Christensen  lost  the 
absolute  majority  it  had  over  all  other  parties 
together.  The  Minister  of  Justice,  Alberti,  re- 
signed in  1908,  and  six  weeks  later  gave  himself 
up  for  fraud,  forgery,  and  embezzlement  on  a 
scale  unheard  of  in  Denmark.  The  Ministry 
was  compelled  to  resign,  and  a  new  Cabinet 
was  formed  by  Neergaard,  of  the  Moderate  Left. 
A  commission  which  was  appointed  in  1902  to 
decide  by  which  means  Denmark  could  best 
defend  her  neutrality  reported  in  1908.  Neer- 
gaard laid  a  Defence  Bill  before  Parliament,  but 
he  soon  resigned  and  a  cabinet  formed  expressly 
for  the  purpose  by  Count  Holstein-Ledreborg 
carried  the  Defence  Bill  through  both  Houses  in 
1909..    Copenhagen  was  to  be  strongly;  fortified 


Constitutional  Struggles  149 

on  the  sea  side  and  detached  advance  forts  were 
to  be  built  ashore,  in  support,  but  the  old  illegal 
land  fortifications  erected  by  Estrup  were  to  be 
left  standing  till  1922,  when  it  is  to  be  decided  by 
a  referendum  of  the  people  whether  they  shall 
be  demolished  or  not.  Stress  was  to  be  laid  on 
torpedoes  and  coast  defence  by  the  Navy,  which 
was  to  have  a  fortified  point  d'apptd  in  the  Great 
Belt.  New  taxation,  confined  to  the  well-to-do 
classes,  was  introduced  to  meet  the  increase  in 
military  expenditure.  Two  ex-ministers,  J.  C. 
Christensen  and  Berg,  were  impeached  and,  re- 
spectively, censured  and  fined  for  the  lack  of 
supervision  that  made  the  embezzlements  of 
Alberti  possible,  while  Alberti  was  sentenced  to 
eight  years'  penal  servitude. 

The  next  great  measure  was  the  constitutional 
Reform  Bill,  which,  though  it  had  the  support  of 
all  parties  except  the  Conservatives,  could  be 
held  up  by  them  as  long  as  they  retained  their 
majority  in  the  Upper  House.  It  proposed  that 
the  parliamentary  suffrage  and  the  eligibility  as 
Member  of  Parliament  should  be  given  to  every 
man  and  woman  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  The 
Upper  House  was  to  be  elected  on  a  more  demo- 
cratic franchise.  The  King  was  to  cease  to 
nominate  part  of  its  members;  they  were  to  be 
co-opted  by  the  elected  members,  in  future.  The 
revised  Constitution  was  signed  by  the  King  on 
June  5,  1915. 

Frederick  VIII  died  suddenly  in  Hamburg  in 


150  The  Story  of  Denmark 


May,  19 1 2.  Christian  X,  the  present  King,  is 
married  to  Alexandrine,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin  and  sister  of  the  German 
Crown  Princess.  He  follows  faithfully  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  father  as  a  constitutional  King, 
and  has  endeared  himself  to  his  subjects  by  fre- 
quent and  informal  visits  to  the  most  outlying 
parts  of  Denmark.  The  resistance  of  the  Con- 
servatives to  the  constitutional  Reform  Bill  has 
weakened,  and  it  is  obvious  that  they  will  yield 
in  the  end.  It  was  passed  in  the  Lower  House 
by  107  votes  against  6  and  the  Radical  Cabinet 
of  Mr.  Zahle,  in  power  since  the  elections  in  May, 
1 913,  after  many  vain  efforts  in  a  joint  committee 
of  the  two  Houses,  has  at  last  succeeded  in  carry- 
ing it  by  the  common  consent  of  all  parties. 
Democratic  progress  in  Denmark  will  then  meet 
with  no  hindrance  on  the  way  to  its  goal  to  make 
the  country  the  freest  and  best  governed  in  Europe. 
Already  it  sets  the  example  to  others  in  agricul- 
ture and  dairying.  The  Danes  have  reclaimed 
waste  land  within  their  borders  equal  in  area  to 
Danish  Slesvig,  and  their  country  is  prosperous 
beyond  their  wildest  dreams  of  thirty  years  ago. 


PARTn 

ICELAND 


151 


CHAPTER  XIX 

ICELAND1 

The  first  undoubted  account  of  the  discovery  of 
Iceland  is  found  in  Chapter  VII  of  De  Mensura 
Orbis  Terra,  by  the  Irish  monk  Dicuil,  written 
in  A.  D.  825.  He  states  that  thirty  years  ago 
(*'.  e.,  in  795)  some  monks  told  him  of  their  stay 
in  Iceland — Thule,  as  it  seems  to  have  been 
called  by  its  earliest  Celtic  discoverers.  The 
heathen  Norwegian  settlers  who  came  to  Iceland 
in  the  ninth  century  found  books,  bells,  and 
croziers  left  behind  by  the  monks  who  fled  from 
the  island  at  the  approach  of  the  vikings.  A  few 
place-names  in  the  east  of  Iceland,  such  as  Papey, 
Papyli,  Papos,  are  the  only  traces  left  of  these 
early  settlers  who  were  called  Papar  by  the 
Norsemen. 

The  first  Scandinavian  discoverer  of  Iceland 
was  Naddod  or  Gardar — the  sources  differ — about 
a.d.  860.  Raven  Floki,  who  let  loose  three  ravens 
in  mid-ocean  and  sailed  in  the  direction  in  which 

1  Students  of  the  early  history  of  Iceland  may  be  referred  to 
Viscount  Bryce's  luminous  essay  on  the  Icelandic  Republic  in 
his  Studies  in  History  and  Jurisprudence,  Oxford,  1901. 

153 


154  The  Story  of  Iceland 

they  flew,  was  the  next.  He  called  the  country 
Iceland  (Is-land,  the  land  of  ice)  because  from 
a  mountain-top  in  North-west  Iceland  he  saw  a 
fiord  filled  with  Polar  ice.  The  first  Norwegian 
settler  of  Iceland  was  Ingolf  Arnarson,  about 
a.d.  874.  When  after  the  battle  of  Hafrsfiord, 
872,  Harald  Fairhair  became  the  undisputed  King 
of  all  Norway  and  subjected  its  free  chieftains  to 
taxation,  they  preferred  to  emigrate.  For  sixty 
years  a  stream  of  men  of  the  highest  and  best 
blood  in  Norway  landed  on  the  shores  of  Iceland. 
Chieftains  took  with  them  earth  from  below  the 
temple  altar  in  the  motherland,  and  placed  it  in 
the  new  temple  which  they  built  in  the  new  land. 
Each  chieftain  ruled  his  district  or  land- take 
(land-ndm),  as  it  was  called.  Iceland  was  settled 
in  870-930,  partly  direct  from  Norway,  partly 
by  Norsemen  and  Celts  from  the  northern  parts 
of  the  British  Isles.  We  possess  the  records  and 
genealogies  of  many  hundreds  of  the  most  pro- 
minent of  these  settlers  in  the  Book  of  Land-takes 
(Land-ndmab6c).  No  other  nation  possesses  so 
full  and  detailed  records  of  its  beginnings. 

The  chieftains,  Godar  (singular  Godi),  presided 
at  temple  feasts  and  sacrifices,  and  were,  at  the 
same  time,  the  temporal  and  spiritual  heads  of 
the  people.  They  sent  Ulfliot  to  Norway  to  make 
a  Constitution  for  the  Icelandic  Commonwealth. 
He  accomplished  this  in  three  years.  In  930  a 
central  Parliament  for  all  Iceland,  Althing  or 
Althingi,  was  established  at  Thingvellir  in  South- 


Iceland  155 

west  Iceland,  and  a  Law  Speaker  was  appointed 
to  "speak  the  law."  In  964  the  number  of  chief- 
taincies {Godord)  was  fixed  at  thirty-nine,  nine  for 
each  of  the  four  quarters  into  which  the  island 
was  divided,  except  for  the  north  quarter,  which 
was  allowed  twelve  chieftains  instead  of  nine. 
The  Althing,  as  a  court  of  appeal,  acted  through 
four  courts,  one  for  each  quarter.  There  was  also 
a  fifth  court,  instituted  in  1004,  which  exercised 
jurisdiction  in  cases  where  the  other  courts  failed. 
For  legislative  purposes  the  Althing  acted  through 
a  Committee  of  144  men,  only  one  third  of  whom, 
viz.,  the  thirty-nine  Godar,  and  their  nine  nomi- 
nees, had  the  right  to  vote.  These  nine  nominees 
were  elected  by  the  Godar  of  the  south,  west,  and 
east  quarters,  three  by  each  quarter  in  order  to 
give  each  of  them  the  same  number  of  men  on 
the  Committee  as  the  north  quarter  had.  Each 
of  these  forty-eight  men  then  appointed  two 
assessors  to  advise  him;  one  was  to  sit  behind  him, 
the  other  in  front  of  him  so  that  he  could  readily 
seek  their  advice.  The  whole  Committee  was 
called  Logretta  (The  Amender  of  the  Law) .  After 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  the  two  Bishops 
of  Iceland  were  added  to  the  Logretta,  over  which 
the  Law  Speaker,  the  sole  official  of  the  Common- 
wealth, used  to  preside.  It  was  his  duty  to  recite 
aloud,  in  the  hearing  of  all  present  at  the  Parlia- 
ment, the  whole  law  of  Iceland,  and  to  go  through 
it  in  the  course  of  the  three  years  during  which 
he  held  office.    The  annual  meeting  of  the  Althing, 


156  The  Story  of  Iceland 

towards  the  end  of  June,  generally  lasted  a  fort- 
night. The  Speaker  had  also  to  recite  annually 
the  formulas  of  actions  at  law.  As  no  laws  were 
written  down  till  11 17,  he  had  to  rely  solely  on  his 
memory.  For  his  labours  he  received  an  annual 
salary  of  two  hundred  ells  of  woollen  cloth,  and 
one  half  of  the  fines  imposed  at  the  Althing. 
He  was  the  living  voice  of  the  law,  and  his  deci- 
sions were  accepted  as  final.  The  Godar  and 
their  nine  nominees  sat  on  the  four  middle  benches 
arranged  round  a  square  in  the  centre,  twelve  on 
each  bench,  while  the  two  assessors  appointed  by 
each  of  them  sat,  one  on  a  bench  behind,  the  other 
on  a  bench  in  front  of  the  Godar  by  whom  they 
were  nominated. 

At  the  Althing  in  a.d.  1000  a  debate  took  place 
about  adopting  Christianity  as  the  religion  of 
the  country.  Christian  chieftains  supported  this 
proposal  of  the  envoys  of  King  Olaf  Tryggvason 
of  Norway.  To  avoid  civil  war  the  heathens 
agreed  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  heathen 
Law  Speaker  as  to  whether  the  new  or  the  old 
religion  should  prevail  in  Iceland.  For  three 
days  and  three  nights  the  Speaker  lay  in  his  tent 
pondering  over  the  two  religions.  On  the  fourth 
day  he  stood  forth  on  the  Law  Mount  and  declared 
that  the  Icelanders  were  to  be  baptized  and  to 
be  called  Christians,  the  temples  to  be  pulled  down, 
but  those  who  liked  to  sacrifice  privately  in  their 
homes  to  the  old  gods  might  continue  to  do  so, 
and  some  of  the  heathen  customs  were  to  be  per- 


Iceland  157 

mitted.  This  met  with  acceptance  as  a  wise 
political  move;  the  hot  springs  in  the  neighbour- 
hood were  used  for  the  baptism  (i.  e.,  immersion) 
as  the  men  of  Northern  and  Eastern  Iceland 
stipulated  that  they  should  be  baptized  in  warm 
water. 

Two  bishops,  St.  Thorlac  of  Skalholt  and 
St.  John  of  Holar,  were,  by  a  public  vote  at  the 
Althing,  declared  to  be  saints,  after  a  thorough 
and  searching  inquiry  into  the  miracles  they  had 
wrought.  The  Icelandic  Church  was  a  Church 
of  the  people  for  the  people.  In  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  six  Benedictine  and  five 
Augustinian  monasteries  were  founded,  all  of  them 
*  centres  of  learning  and  culture;  a  great  part  of 
the  old  Icelandic  literature  is  supposed  to  have 
been  written,  or  at  least  copied,  in  them.  Two 
Benedictine  monasteries  in  North  Iceland, 
founded  1133  and  1155,  were  the  earliest.  The 
Icelandic  monks  wrote  in  Icelandic,  and  not  in 
Latin,  as  all  their  brethren  on  the  Continent  did. 
They  were  intensely  national,  and  handed  down 
with  scrupulous  care  even  the  records  of  the 
heathen  faith. 

The  two  centuries  and  a  half  which  followed 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  were  the  greatest 
period  in  the  history  of  Iceland.  A  great  literature 
sprung  up  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
at  a  time  when  the  rest  of  Europe  had  nothing 
better  to  show  than  dry  annalists,  with  the  single 
exception    of    the    Provencal    Troubadours.  V  At 


158  The  Story  of  Iceland 

the  courts  of  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Dublin, 
and  Orkney,  Icelandic  poets  were  the  only  singers 
of  heroic  deeds.  It  was  an  outburst  of  literature 
such  as  the  world  had  not  seen  since  the  downfall 
of  Rome. 

Snorri  Sturluson  (1178-1241)  came  of  the  great 
Sturlung  family,  and  was  for  many  years  Law 
Speaker  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  wrote  the 
Lives  of  the  Kings  of  Norway  down  to  A.D. 
1 1 77,  a  work  commonly  called  Ileimskringla,  from 
words  at  the  beginning  of  the  text.  His  critical 
acumen  and  balancing  of  evidence,  his  power  of 
character-drawing,  his  vigorous  and  spirited  nar- 
rative, his  humorous  touches,  put  him  in  the 
forefront  of  the  historians  of  all  time.  His  Edda 
is  a  key  to  the  poetry  and  mythology  of  the  North. 
He  succeeded  in  dissuading  Earl  Skule  of  Norway 
from  sending  a  military  expedition  to  Iceland, 
and  became  the  liegeman  of  King  Hakon,  but, 
siding  with  the  Earl  in  the  quarrel  between  him 
and  the  King,  he  was  murdered  at  his  farm  in 
Iceland  on  September  22,  1241.  His  two  nephews, 
Sturla  Thordarson  and  Olaf  Thordarson,  were 
the  best  poets  of  the  time.  Sturla  (1214-84) 
wrote  Islendinga  Saga,  a  history  of  the  civil  wars 
in  Iceland,  unique  for  minute  details,  clear  narra- 
tive, and  faithful  impartiality,  even  to  his  ene- 
mies among  his  contemporaries.  He  also  wrote 
the  Lives  of  King  Hakon  and  of  King  Magnus, 
of  Norway. 

The  Icelandic  clergy  were  national,  and  many 


Iceland  159 

chieftains  were  learned  men — both  things  unique 
in  Europe  at  this  time.  The  first  Bishop  of  Ice- 
land, Isleif,  was  ordained  at  Bremen  in  1056,  and 
established  the  Episcopal  see  at  his  family  seat, 
Skalholt.  Adam  of  Bremen,  writing  about  1070, 
states  that  "the  Icelanders  treat  their  bishop  like 
a  king,  for  with  them  there  is  no  king  but  the  law." 
Gissur,  the  son  of  Isleif,  succeeded  him  as  bishop; 
he  was  so  beloved  that  "young  and  old,  rich  and 
poor,  all  wanted  to  sit  and  stand  as  he  liked." 
He  introduced  the  tithe  in  1096.  A  census  taken 
about  that  time  gives  4650  yeomen  {bonder, 
boendr),  each  of  whom  had  to  pay  a  tax  if  he  failed 
in  his  duty  to  attend  the  Althing.  Gissur,  at  the 
desire  of  the  people,  established  another  Episcopal 
see  at  Holar,  in  North  Iceland,  to  which  Jon 
Ogmundsson  was  appointed  in  nc6  by  the  Metro- 
politan at  Lund.  Jon  built  a  cathedral  and 
founded  a  grammar  school  at  Holar,  and  every 
person  in  his  diocese  had  to  visit  him  once  a  year. 
After  his  death  in  1121  he  was  declared  a  saint  by 
the  Althing. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Commonwealth  did 
not  provide  for  any  central  authority  which  could 
enforce  obedience  to  the  laws  and  hold  lawbreak- 
ers in  check.  By  degrees  the  chieftaincies  passed 
into  the  hands  of  a  few  great  families.  In  con- 
sequence some  chiefs  became  masters  of  large 
districts,  and,  like  feudal  lords,  rode  to  the  Althing 
with  an  armed  body  of  retainers,  numbered  by 
hundreds.     The  old  blood-feuds  became  little  wars, 


160  The  Story  of  Iceland 

and  armies  of  more  than  a  thousand  men  some- 
times took  the  field.  Continual  civil  wars  raged 
throughout  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  some  of  the  great  families  who  had  mono- 
polized the  chieftaincies  were  exterminated  in 
them.  Rome  and  Norway  took  the  opportunity 
to  assert  their  supremacy.  Gudmund  Arason, 
surnamed  the  Good,  Bishop  of  Holar,  exhorted 
thereto  by  the  Archbishop  of  Norway,  demanded 
the  right  of  jurisdiction  over  his  clergy.  The 
chieftains  refused  to  admit  the  claims  of  the 
Church,  and  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  ensued. 
The  Kings  of  Norway  had  always  held  that  the 
Icelanders  as  Norwegian  colonists  ought  to  own 
their  supremacy,  though  they  had  in  vain  tried 
to  induce  the  Althing  to  hold  this  view.  King 
Hakon  Hakonsson  (1217-63)  began  to  summon 
Icelandic  chieftains  to  Norway  in  order  to  settle 
their  disputes  as  if  he  were  their  suzerain.  He 
interfered,  and  set  chief  against  chief.  Sturla 
Sighvatsson  entered  into  a  secret  league  with 
Hakon  to  conquer  Iceland  for  him  and  hold  it  as 
his  liegeman.  He  attacked  chief  after  chief  and 
sent  them  to  Norway.  He,  his  father,  and  brother 
were  slain  in  the  battle  of  Orlygsstad  in  1238,  by 
Gissur  Thorvaldsson.  In  the  same  year  the  two 
Bishops  of  Iceland  died  and  the  Archbishop  re- 
fused to  consecrate  the  bishops  elected  by  the 
Icelanders,  and  appointed  instead  two  Norwegians 
to  the  sees  of  Skalholt  and  Holar. 

Snorri  Sturluson,  the  great  historian  who  wrote 


Iceland  161 

the  Lives  of  the  Kings  of  Norway,  was  foully- 
murdered  on  his  homestead  Reykjaholt  by  his 
son-in-law  Gissur  Thorvaldsson,  at  King  Hakon's 
instigation,  1241.  He  had  been  won  over  by  the 
King,  who  promised  to  make  him  Earl  of  Iceland. 
Through  bribery  and  persuasion  and  by  sending 
emissaries  through  the  island  the  King  brought 
about  that  the  Icelandic  Parliament  passed  a 
Treaty  of  Union  with  the  Crown  of  Norway  in 
which  they  accepted  its  supremacy;  it  was  agreed 
to  by  the  different  parts  of  the  country  at  the 
Althing  in  the  years  1262,  1263,  and  1264. 

The  Treaty  of  Union  enacted  that  an  Earl 
should  represent  the  King  of  Norway  in  Iceland, 
that  the  Icelanders  should  keep  their  own  laws 
and  retain  the  power  of  taxation,  that  they  should 
have  all  the  same  rights  as  Norwegians  in  Norway, 
and  that  "if  this  treaty  is  broken  and  is  deemed 
to  be  broken  by  the  best  men  (in  Iceland),  the 
Icelanders  shall  be  free  of  all  obligations  towards 
the  King  of  Norway."  This  treaty  has  down  to 
the  present  day  remained  the  charter  of  liberty 
of  Iceland. 

After  the  death  of  Gissur  Thorvaldsson  in  1268 
no  other  Earl  was  appointed.  The  old  code  of 
laws  (Grdgds) ,  elaborate  as  the  Codex  Justinianus, 
was  replaced  in  127 1  by  a  Norwegian  code  of  laws. 
Two  Lawmen  were  to  govern  the  country  and  the 
Logretta  was  limited  to  its  judicial  functions.  The 
Althing  did  not  favour  the  new  code  and  a  com- 
promise code,   called  Jonsbok,  after  the  Lawmen 


1 62  The  Story  of  Iceland 

who  brought  it  from  Norway,  was  passed  in  1 281, 
with  some  changes.  Iceland  was  divided  into 
syslur,  counties  administered  by  sheriffs  {syslu- 
menn)  appointed  by  the  King.  The  estates  of 
the  greatest  house  in  Iceland,  the  Sturlungs,  were 
confiscated  by  the  King.  After  Norway  became 
united  with  Denmark  through  marriage  in  1380, 
the  Treaty  of  Union  was  often  disregarded  and 
the  Icelanders  were  so  hard  pressed  that  they 
meekly  submitted.  The  Black  Death,  languish- 
ing trade,  volcanic  eruptions,  and  Polar  ice  block- 
ading the  coast  brought  Iceland  to  the  verge  of 
ruin.  The  fifteenth  century  is  the  darkest  age 
of  Icelandic  history.  The  port  of  Bergen  in 
Norway  had  been  granted  a  monopoly  of  the 
Iceland  trade.  About  1412  the  English  began 
to  fish  and  trade  in  Iceland  in  spite  of  repeated 
prohibitions  by  the  Danish  Government.  Soon 
the  English  buccaneers  took  the  law  into  their 
own  hands,  plundered  and  killed,  carried  one 
Governor  of  Iceland  off  to  England  and  killed 
another.  They  even  built  a  fort  in  the  south  of 
Iceland,  and  about  1430  the  two  Bishops  of  Iceland 
were  both  Englishmen.  By  favouring  the  Han- 
seatic  traders,  mainly  from  Hamburg,  Denmark 
succeeded  in  ousting  English  trade  from  Iceland 
in  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  the 
so-called  "Iceland  Fleet"  continued  to  fish  for 
cod  and  ling  in  Iceland  waters,  and  the  House  of 
Commons  in  a  petition  to  Henry  VIII  states  that 
the  kingdom  will  be  undone  unless  the  Danish 


Iceland  163 

prohibition  of  English  fisheries  in  Iceland  be 
rescinded.  Henry  VIII  negotiated  with  Denmark 
in  1518  and  1535  about  buying  Iceland  for  a  sum 
of  money. 

The  Reformation  and  the  Church  ordinance  of 
Christian  III  were  not  accepted  by  the  Catholic 
Bishops  nor  by  the  Althing.  The  Danish  Gov- 
ernor's secretary  was  slain  for  violence  to  the  aged 
and  blind  Bishop  of  Skalholt,  who  was  carried  off 
to  Denmark  by  two  warships  in  1541  and  died  the 
next  year.  In  the  diocese  of  Skalholt  a  new  Pro- 
testant bishop  sought  to  enforce  the  unpopular 
new  faith  which  was  now  accepted  by  the  Althing. 
On  his  death  (1548)  the  Catholics  and  the  Luther- 
ans elected  a  Lutheran  and  a  Catholic  bishop 
for  Skalholt.  Christian  III  supported  the  Luther- 
an, Bishop  Jon  Arason  of  Holar  the  Catholic, 
bishop.  Jon  Arason,  a  chieftain  in  the  old  style 
and  a  fine  poet,  called  for  and  received  promises  of 
help  from  Pope  and  Emperor.  Solemnly,  before 
the  high  altar  of  his  cathedral,  he  swore  that  he 
would  die  before  he  betrayed  Holy  Church.  He 
fortified  his  residence,  seized  the  Lutheran  bishop 
and  imprisoned  him  there,  administered  the 
Skalholt  diocese,  restored  the  monasteries  con- 
fiscated by  the  Danes,  and  expelled  the  Danish 
Governor,  1550.  During  an  attack  on  a  chieftain 
in  West  Iceland  he  was  surprised  and  captured. 
At  the  instigation  of  the  Governor's  secretary 
he  and  his  two  sons  were  beheaded  at  Skalholt 
on   November   7,    1550,   but   the   secretary  and 


1 64  The  Story  of  Iceland 

others  guilty  of  this  judicial  murder  were  slain 
in  revenge  by  the  people.  The  New  Testament  in 
Icelandic,  secretly  translated  by  Odd  Gottskalks- 
son,  was  printed  in  Denmark  in  1540;  Jon  Arason 
had  imported  a  printing  press  and  printers  some 
years  before.  The  first  complete  Icelandic  Bible 
was  printed  at  Holar,  1584.  The  Old  Testament 
was  translated  by  Bishop  Gudbrand  Thorlaksson, 
and  all  the  fine  woodcuts  and  part  of.  the  fount  of 
type  were  made  with  his  own  hands.  At  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  there  is  a  Renaissance  of 
Old  Icelandic  literature.  Arngrim  Jonsson  (died 
1648)  rediscovered  the  treasures  of  the  past  and, 
in  his  Latin  works,  brought  them  to  the  knowledge 
of  Europe.  His  Brevis  Commentarius,  1593,  and 
Crymogcea  (i.  e.,  Iceland),  1609,  were  quoted  and 
translated  all  over  Europe.  Thormod  Torfaeus 
(Torfason,  1636-17 19),  the  Icelandic  historio- 
grapher of  the  King  of  Denmark,  continued  this 
work.  The  Icelandic  antiquarian,  Ami  Magnus- 
son  (died  1730),  diligently  rescued  every  scrap 
of  old  manuscript  to  be  found  in  Iceland  and 
founded  the  magnificent  Arna-Magnaan  Collec- 
tion of  MSS.  in  Copenhagen,  devoting  all  his  life 
and  all  his  money  to  it.  To  him  it  is  due  more  than 
to  any  single  man  that  the  classic  literature  of 
Iceland  has  been  preserved. 

The  Hanseatic  trade  was  succeeded  by  a  Danish 
monopoly  of  trade  which,  lasting  250  years,  com- 
pleted the  economic  ruin  of  Iceland.  It  was  in- 
stituted by  Christian  IV  in  1602  who  granted  this 


Iceland  165 

monopoly  to  certain  merchants  in  Copenhagen, 
Elsinore,  and  Malmoe.  Algerine  pirates  appeared 
off  the  coast  in  1627  and  carried  off  hundreds  of 
people  into  slavery.  Smallpox  carried  off  one 
third  of  the  population,  in  1707,  famines  raged, 
and  volcanic  eruptions,  especially  that  of  1783, 
killed  cattle  and  sheep,  reduced  the  population, 
and  laid  waste  large  tracts  of  the  island.  Nature 
seemed  to  be  in  league  with  man  for  the  utter 
perdition  of  the  little  nation  on  the  verge  of  the 
Arctic  Circle.  During  the  war  between  England, 
1807-14,  English  privateers  prevented  Danish 
ships  from  reaching  Iceland  with  corn  and  other 
necessaries,  but  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  who  visited 
Iceland  in  1772,  persuaded  ministers  to  issue  an 
Order  in  Council  exempting  Iceland  from  the  war. 

The  Althing  at  Thingvellir  was  abolished  in 
1800,  and  replaced  by  a  High  Court  at  Reykjavik. 
The  two  Episcopal  sees  were  united,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Iceland  was  to  reside  at  Reykjavik. 

The  national  movements  in  Europe  reached  the 
shores  of  Iceland,  and  a  band  of  patriots  began 
a  struggle  to  win  back  the  old  freedom.  Skuli 
Magniisson  and  Eggert  Olafsson  were  the  fore- 
runners in  the  eighteenth  century.  On  March  8, 
1843,  the  Althing  was  re-established  as  a  delibera- 
tive assembly,  and  when  Denmark  had  become 
a  constitutional  monarchy,  a  national  assembly 
met  at  Reykjavik  in  1851  to  draft  a  Constitution. 
Denmark  proposed  to  extend  her  Constitution  of 
1849  to  Iceland,  which  was  to  send  six  members  to 


166  The  Story  of  Iceland 

the  Danish  Parliament,  but  a  Committee  of  the 
Althing,  under  the  leadership  of  J6n  Sigurdsson, 
declared  that  as  Iceland,  by  the  Treaty  of  Union 
(1262-64)  entered  of  her  own  free  will  into  union 
with  the  Danish  (Norwegian)  Crown,  she  claimed, 
not  provincial  autonomy,  as  proposed  by  Den- 
mark, but  a  sovereign  status,  the  right  of  taxa- 
tion, and  ministers  responsible  to  the  Althing — 
in  short,  a  status  closely  approaching  personal 
union  with  Denmark.  The  national  assembly 
was  at  once  dissolved  and  military  interference 
was  threatened.  The  constitutional  struggle  went 
on,  under  the  leadership  of  Jon  Sigurdsson  (1811— 
79),  equally  eminent  as  historian,  antiquarian, 
and  politician,  until  the  King  of  Denmark, 
Christian  IX,  visited  Iceland  in  1874  and  granted 
a  Constitution,  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration 
of  the  millennial  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of 
Ingolf  Arnarson  in  Iceland.  It  gave  to  the 
Althing  legislative  power,  and  divided  it  into  two 
Houses,  a  Lower  House  of  twenty-four  members, 
and  an  Upper  House  of  twelve  members;  thirty 
of  the  thirty-six  members  of  both  Houses  were 
to  be  elected  by  the  people  at  large,  and  to  elect, 
from  among  themselves  one  half  of  the  Upper 
House,  i.  e.,  six  members;  the  other  half  to  be 
nominated  by  the  Crown.  A  governor  (landshof- 
dingi,  chieftain  of  the  land)  was  to  represent  the 
King  in  Iceland  and  lay  Government  Bills  before 
the  Althing.  The  Danish  Minister  of  Justice 
was  to  act  as  Minister  for  Iceland.     This  compro- 


j6n  sigurdsson 


Iceland  167 

mise  did  not  work  well.  From  18 74- 1900  more 
than  fifty  Bills  passed  by  the  Althing  were  vetoed 
by  the  King  on  the  advice  of  the  Danish  Minister 
in  Copenhagen.  The  new  Liberal  Government 
of  Denmark  granted  the  demands  of  Iceland  in 
the  main.  The  new  Constitution  was  successively 
passed  by  two  Althings,  the  last  time  in  1903. 
The  Minister  for  Iceland  is  to  be  solely  occupied 
with  Icelandic  affairs.  He  is  to  be  present  at  the 
sittings  of  the  Althing  to  which  he  is  responsible, 
and  his  tenure  of  office  ceases  when  he  is  no  longer 
supported  by  the  majority  in  Parliament.  He 
must  be  familiar  with  the  Icelandic  language, 
that  is,  in  practice,  be  a  native  of  Iceland.  He 
resides  at  Reykjavik,  though  he  keeps  an  office 
in  Copenhagen  where  he  goes  periodically  to  sub- 
mit Bills  passed  by  the  Althing  for  the  signature 
of  the  Sovereign,  and  to  get  his  sanction  for  new, 
proposed  Bills.  All  measures  of  importance  are 
to  be  laid  before  the  King  at  Cabinet  Councils. 
The  Minister  for  Iceland  has  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet 
only  on  such  occasions,  and  the  Danish  Ministers 
have  no  voice  in  Icelandic  affairs  unless  they  con- 
cern Denmark  too,  nor  has  the  Icelandic  Minister 
a  voice  in  purely  Danish  affairs.  As  Iceland  does 
not  contribute  to  the  Civil  List,  the  Army  or  the 
Navy,  foreign  affairs  are  wholly  left  to  Denmark. 
The  Althing  was  enlarged;  thirty-four  members 
are  elected  by  the  people,  and  they  elect  from 
among  themselves  eight  to  sit  in  the  Upper  House, 
leaving   twenty-six   to   form    the    Lower    House; 


1 68  The  Story  of  Iceland 

six  members  of  the  Upper  House  are  nominated 
by  the  King;  thus  the  Lower  House  appoints 
more  than  one  half  of  the  fourteen  members  of 
the  Upper  House.  The  tenure  of  office  by  the 
Icelandic  Minister  is  determined  by  the  majority 
in  the  Lower  House.  In  191 3  a  commission  was 
appointed  to  decide  what  should  be  the  national 
flag  of  Iceland.  A  white  cross  with  a  stripe  of 
red,  in  a  blue  field,  has  won  the  royal  assent. 

The  revised  Constitution  of  Iceland,  sanctioned 
by  the  King  on  June  19,  191 5,  gives  the  suffrage 
to  women. 

The  rebirth  of  Iceland  is  above  all  owing  to  the 
great  leader,  Jon  Sigurdsson,  on  whose  monument 
in  Reykjavik  his  grateful  countrymen  have  put 
the  inscription:  "Iceland's  beloved  son,  her  hon- 
our, sword  and  shield."  The  centenary  of  his 
birth  (191 1)  was  kept  as  a  great  national  festival. 
Seldom  has  it  been  given  to  one  man  to  renew 
the  youth  of  his  nation  in  so  many  departments 
of  human  activity. 


PART  III 

SWEDEN 


169 


CHAPTER  XX 

ORIGINS — THE   VIKING  AGE   AND  THE   EARLY 
MIDDLE  AGE 

The  first  historical  record  of  Sweden  and  the 
Swedes  is  found  about  a.d.  ioo  in  the  Germania 
of  Tacitus.  According  to  him  the  Suiones  (Old 
Norse  Sviar,  Old  English  Sweon)  possessed  a 
powerful  fleet  which  secured  their  safety  from 
invasions.  Ptolemy  mentions  the  Goutai  (Old 
Norse  Gautar,  Old  English  Geatas),  the  Goths 
after  whom  Gotland  is  called,  Jordanes  both 
Swedes  and  Goths,  Prokopius  the  Goths  (Gautoi) 
the  poem  of  Beowulf  the  Geatas.  According  to 
Snorri  Sturluson  the  early  Swedish  kings  were 
called  Ynglings,  i.  e.,  descendants  of  Yngvi,  son 
of  Niord,  one  of  their  gods.  They  resided  at 
Uppsala  with  its  great  temple,  thus  described  by 
Adam  of  Bremen  in  his  History  of  the  Archbishops 
of  Hamburg  (book  iv.,  chap.  26)  about  a.d.  1070. 
It  was  of  great  splendour  and  covered  with  gild- 
ing. In  it  stood  statues  of  the  three  chief  gods: 
Thor,  Odin,  and  Fricco  (*.  e.,  Frey).  Every  nine 
years  a  great  festival  was  celebrated  there  to 
which  embassies  were  sent  by  all  the  tribes  of 

171 


172"  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Sweden.  Of  every  kind  of  animal,  nine  were 
sacrificed  on  such  occasions  and  their  blood  offered 
to  the  gods.  Near  the  temple  was  a  grove  of 
peculiar  sanctity  in  which  the  bodies  of  the  victims, 
among  them  human  beings,  were  hung  up.  Even 
kings  were  sacrificed  by  the  people  to  pacify  the 
gods. 

Ansgar  preached  Christianity  at  Birca,  the 
chief  city  and  port  of  the  Swedes,  situated  on  an 
island  in  Lake  Malaren,  in  the  reign  of  King  Bern 
(Biorn),  about  830,  for  eighteen  months,  and  also 
in  853,  under  King  Olof,  but  the  churches  founded 
by  him  did  not  long  survive  his  death. 

Swedish  vikings  made  themselves  masters  of 
the  Eastern  Baltic.  Swedish  settlements  were 
found  on  the  south-west  and  south  coast  of  Fin- 
land long  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era.  The  Russian  Empire  owes  not  only  its 
foundation  but  its  very  name  to  Swedish  vikings, 
called  Rus  in  Slavonic,  adopted  from  Finnish 
Ruotsi,  the  name  which  the  Finnish  coast  tribes 
gave  to  the  rodds-men  or  rowing  men  from  Sweden. x 
According  to  the  Russian  chronicles  three  brothers, 
Rurik,  Askold,  and  Dir,  came  across  the  sea  to 
the  Slavonic  tribes  south  of  Lake  Ladoga  about 
860  and  founded  a  kingdom  there.  Rurik 
(Hroerek),   the  eldest,  ruled   at   Novgorod    (Old 

1  Roslagen  is  to-day  the  name  of  the  coast  of  Uppland,  only. 
Ro(dd)slag  was  a  ship  district,  i.  e.,  a  district  bound  in  time  of 
war  to  provide  a  certain  number  of  ships,  manned  with  rodds- 
karlar  (rowing  men). 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  173 

Norse,  Holmgard).  The  vikings  founded  another 
kingdom  at  Kiyev  on  the  Dniepr.  The  two 
kingdoms  were  united  about  900,  with  Kiyev  for 
their  capital,  and  their  inhabitants  were  called 
Rus,  or  Ros,  after  their  rulers.  This  kingdom, 
called  Gardariki  by  the  Norsemen  (from  Norse, 
gard,  Russian,  gorod,  a  walled  town),  carried  on  an 
extensive  trade  with  Constantinople  and  the  East 
along  the  Dniepr — whose  rapids  bear  Swedish 
names  to-day — and  the  Black  Sea.  Their  fleets 
in  the  Black  Sea  threatened  Constantinople 
(Miklagard).  Many  vikings  took  service  in  the 
Emperor's  lifeguards,  the  Vaerings.  Hence  they 
were  called  Varyags  in  Slavonic.  Gotland  was 
the  centre  of  this  trade,  and  its  soil  to-day  is  richer 
in  finds  of  treasure  and  foreign  coins  than  any 
part  of  Sweden. 

King  Eric  the  Victorious  was  called  thus  from 
his  victory  on  the  River  Fyris,  near  Uppsala, 
about  983,  over  the  united  army  of  the  famous 
Jomsborg  vikings  and  the  Danes,  commanded  by 
his  nephew,  Styrbiorn  the  Strong,  who  was  slain. 
It  is  said  Eric  obtained  victory  by  a  vow  to  give 
himself  to  Odin  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  and  he 
died  about  993,  after  seizing  Denmark  from  King 
Sven,  who  was  fighting  in  England.  Eric's  son, 
Olaf  Skot-Konung  or  Skott-Konung,  made  peace 
with  Sven,  who  married  his  mother,  Sigrid  the 
Proud.  The  allied  kings  defeated  and  slew 
King  Olaf  Tryggvason  of  Norway  in  the  battle  of 
Svold,  a.d.  1000,  and  became  joint  suzerains  of 


174  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Norway  till  Olaf  Haraldsson  (later  St.  Olaf)  won 
it  from  Earl  Sven  in  1015.  Olaf  of  Sweden  is 
said  to  have  been  baptized  by  Sigfrid,  an  English- 
man, at  Husaby,  in  West  Gotland,  about  1008, 
and,  after  the  conquest  of  England  by  his  step- 
father, Sven  Forkbeard,  in  1013,  money ers  from 
Lincoln  coined  money  for  him  at  Sigtuna.  He 
was  preparing  for  war  against  Norway  when  a 
Norwegian  embassy  appeared  at  the  Uppsala 
mid- winter  assembly  in  1 01 8  to  offer  peace  and 
friendship  and  ask  for  the  hand  of  his  daughter, 
Ingigerd,  on  behalf  of  Norway's  king.  The 
assembly  was  held  in  the  open;  in  the  middle  the 
King  was  seated  on  a  chair,  surrounded  by  his 
court,  while  the  bonder  stood  round,  in  a  circle. 
The  Norwegian  Ambassador  delivered  his  message, 
but  the  Swedish  King  interrupted  him  and  called 
Earl  Ragnvald  of  West  Gotland  a  traitor  when 
he  supported  his  suit.  Then  the  old  Lawman  of 
Tiundaland,  Thorgny,  rose  to  speak  for  the  bond- 
er: "Otherwise  are  the  Kings  of  Sweden  minded 
now  than  they  were  of  yore.  For  then  they  were 
friendly  and  accessible  to  the  people,  but  the 
King  that  now  reigns  wishes  to  hear  only  that 
which  pleases  him,  and  is  bent  on  ruling  Norway 
which  no  Swedish  king  ere  now  has  coveted.  This 
we  bonder  will  stand  no  longer,  but  demand  that 
you  make  peace  with  Norway's  king  and  give 
him  your  daughter  in  marriage.  But  if  you  will 
not  do  as  we  say  we  shall  attack  and  slay  you  as 
our  forefathers  used  to  do  with  self-willed  kings. 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  175 

Now  declare  at  once  which  you  choose!"  The 
bonder  acclaimed  this  speech  loudly,  and  the 
King  gave  way.  Ingigerd  was  betrothed  to  Olaf 
of  Norway  (later  St.  Olaf),  but  Earl  Ragnvald 
then  substituted  her  half-sister,  Astrid,  who  was 
married  to  Olaf  without  her  father's  knowledge, 
while  Ingigerd  married  Jaroslav,  Grand  Duke  of 
Novgorod,  with  whom  Earl  Ragnvald  found 
refuge. 

The  Icelandic  historian,  Snorri  Sturluson,  to 
whom  we  owe  this  picture  of  a  genuine  democracy, 
writing  about  1220,  says:  "Tiundaland  (i.  e.t 
the  land  with  ten  hundreds  or  districts,  part  of 
modern  Uppland)  is  the  best  and  most  nobly 
peopled  part  of  Svithiod  (Sweden),  all  the  realm 
is  subject  to  it,  Uppsala  is  there,  and  the  king's 
seat,  and  the  archbishop's  see,  and  thereby  is 
named  the  Wealth  of  Uppsala.  The  Swedes 
call  the  Swedish  King's  estates  Uppsala  Wealth. 
Each  of  these  parts  of  the  country  has  its  own 
Law- Assembly,  and  its  own  laws  in  many  respects. 
A  lawman  rules  each  law-district  and  he  has  great 
power  with  the  bonder,  for  that  shall  be  law  which 
he  declares.  And  if  a  king,  or  an  earl,  or  bishops 
journey  through  the  kingdom  and  hold  a  meeting 
with  the  bonder,  then  the  lawman  answers  on 
behalf  of  the  bonder  and  they  all  back  him  in 
such  manner  that  the  mightiest  in  the  land  hardly 
dare  to  come  to  their  assembly  without  the  leave 
of  the  bonder  and  the  lawman.  But  whenever 
the    laws    disagree,  they    must  all    yield    to  the 


176  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Uppsala  law,  and  all  other  lawmen  shall  be  under 
the  Lawman  of  Tiundaland." 

To  save  his  throne  Olaf  had  to  take  his  son  for 
co-regent,  but  first  the  Swedes  changed  his  name, 
the  biblical  Jacob,  into  Norse  Anund.  Sole  king 
on  the  death  of  his  father,  1022,  he  died  about 
1050  after  an  uneventful  reign,  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Edmund  the  Old,  at  whose  death,  about 
1060,  the  male  line  of  the  old  Royal  Family  of 
Uppsala  was  extinct. 

Stenkil  Ragnvaldsson,  Earl  of  West  Gotland 
and  Edmund's  son-in-law,  was  now  elected  king. 
Christianity  gained  a  footing  and  Adalvard 
(Ethelwerd)  founded  the  first  Swedish  bishopric 
at  Skara.  Stenkil  frustrated  a  Christian  plot  to 
burn  the  temple  of  Uppsala.  After  his  death  in 
1066  civil  war  raged  between  the  heathen  and  the 
Christians.  His  son,  King  Inge,  was  deposed 
at  the  Uppsala  Assembly  because  he  refused  to 
sacrifice  to  the  heathen  gods,  but  the  heathen 
king  who  was  elected  in  his  place  was  burnt  with 
his  house  by  Inge,  who  thus  regained  the  crown. 
The  male  line  of  the  Stenkil  dynasty  came  to  an 
end  in  1 125.  In  1060-1125  two  English  mission- 
aries, David  and  Eskil,  one  German,  Stephan, 
and  one  Swede,  Botvid,  converted  the  Swedes  to 
Christianity.  But  the  three  last-named  died  the 
death  of  martyrs  and  many  heathens  were  still 
found  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  in  the 
less  accessible  parts.  To  many  baptized  Christians 
Christ  was  merely  a  new  god,  more  powerful  than 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  177 

the  old  gods.  About  11 30  Sverker,  a  chieftain  in 
East  Gotland  who  had  married  the  widow  of  the 
last  descendant  of  Stenkil,  was  elected  king.  He 
asked  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  to  send  Cister- 
cians to  Sweden,  and  they  founded  the  monasteries 
of  Alvastra,  Nydala,  and  Varnhem,  each  of  them 
a  centre  of  civilization  and  culture.  The  Pope 
sent  an  Englishman,  Nicholas  Breakspeare,  Car- 
dinal Bishop  of  Albano,  as  his  legate  to  organize 
the  Scandinavian  Church.  After  founding  the 
Archbishopric  of  Trondhjem  in  Norway,  he  sum- 
moned the  first  church  council  in  Sweden  at  the 
newly  established  Episcopal  see,  Linkoping  (n  52). 
But  the  rivalry  of  Swedes  and  Goths  with  regard 
to  the  site  of  the  proposed  archbishop's  see  pre- 
vented its  establishment.  The  Archbishop  of 
Lund  became  the  Primate  of  the  Swedish  Church, 
and  Sweden  agreed  to  pay  Peter's  pence  to  the 
Holy  See.  Sverker  only  ruled  over  Gothic  Sweden 
when  he  was  assassinated  on  Christmas  Eve, 
1 156,  for  about  1150  the  Swedes  had  deposed  him 
and  elected  Eric,  son  of  Jedvard  (Edward),  "a 
good  yeoman,"  king.  Eric  IX  showed  burning 
zeal  in  spreading  Christianity,  assisted  by  Henry, 
the  first  Bishop  of  Uppsala  known  with  certainty 
and  an  Englishman  by  birth.  Eric  issued,  it 
is  said,  important  laws  about  married  women's 
rights  to  share  property.  Henry  accompanied 
Eric  on  his  crusade  in  Finland,  about  1157.  Eric 
defeated  the  heathen  Finlanders  and  compelled 
them    to    be    baptized.     Henry,    with    Swedish 


178  The  Story  of  Sweden 

settlers,  remained  in  Finland,  whose  patron  saint 
he  became  after  dying  the  death  of  a  martyr. 
Eric,  while  attending  Mass  in  the  church  of  East 
Aros  (the  present  Uppsala)  on  May  18,  1160, 
was  surrounded  by  a  Danish  army.  He  refused 
to  cut  short  the  divine  service,  and  then  came  out 
and  fought  his  last  fight  against  overwhelming 
odds.  He  was  slain,  but  miracles  happened  at 
his  grave  and  he  became  Sweden's  patron  saint. 
St.  Eric's  Mass  was  celebrated  annually  on  May 
1 8th,  and  his  bones  were  enclosed  in  a  silver 
shrine  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Uppsala.  The  holiest  of  oaths  was  "By  God 
and  St.  Eric,"  and  his  standard  became  the  royal 
banner  during  the  Middle  Ages.  After  avenging 
Eric's  death  on  the  Danes,  Karl  (Charles),  son 
of  Sverker,  was  elected  king,  1161,  by  all  Sweden, 
— Swedes  and  Goths.  He  is  the  first  Swedish 
king  of  this  name,  though  later  he  ranks  as  Charles 
VII.  From  1161  to  1250  kings  of  St.  Eric's  and 
of  Sverker's  lineage  reign  by  turns,  as  a  rule. 
Pope  Alexander  III  established  an  archiepiscopal 
see  at  Uppsala  and  a  Cistercian,  Stephan  of  Al- 
vastra,  was  consecrated  as  the  first  Archbishop 
of  Sweden  by  the  Archbishop  of  Lund,  at  Sens 
in  France,  in  the  Pope's  presence,  1 164.  In  the 
same  year  the  Swedes  penetrated  up  the  Neva  to 
Lake  Ladoga  and  fought  the  Russians  of  Novgorod. 
Cnut,  son  of  St.  Eric,  killed  King  Karl  by  a  sur- 
prise attack  in  1167.  During  Cnut's  reign,  in 
1187,  heathen  pirates,  Esthonians  and  Carelians, 


-  «  -  o  -  »  ■  »  ■  •; 


apg<S>g:<fe?»jC^r^^^^ 


jg  ;.£f,GBeft..r.4. 

GRAVESTONE   OF    THE   ENGLISH    PATRON    SAINT    OF    FINLAND, 
BISHOP     HENRY 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  179 

rowed  up  Lake  Malaren,  burnt  and  plundered 
towns  and  cities,  and  even  killed  the  archbishop. 
A  stronghold  was  then  built  on  the  islet  of  Stock- 
holm (the  name  probably  means  an  islet  defended 
by  palisades,  stock)  to  defend  the  inlet  giving  access 
to  the  lake  from  the  sea.  This  was  the  foundation 
of  the  capital  of  Sweden.  On  the  death  of  Cnut 
in  119*5,  Sverker,  son  of  Karl,  was  elected  king 
owing  to  the  influence  of  Earl  Birger  Brosa,  whose 
family,  the  Folkungs,  was  the  most  powerful  in 
Sweden,  related  by  marriage  to  all  the  Royal 
Houses  of  the  North.  Sverker,  who  was  Earl 
Birger's  son-in-law,  granted  to  the  bishops  juris- 
diction over  the  clergy  in  1200.  By  this  time 
tithe  had  been  introduced  all  over  Sweden.  After 
Earl  Birger's  death  in  1202  civil  war  broke  out 
between  the  sons  of  Cnut  and  Sverker,  who  took 
refuge  with  King  Valdemar  the  Victorious  of  Den- 
mark, but  Eric,  son  of  Cnut,  defeated  Sverker's 
huge  Danish  army  in  1208,  and  killed  him 
in  another  battle  in  12 10.  Eric  X  (1208-16)  is 
the  first  Swedish  king  of  whom  it  is  known  with 
certainty  that  he  was  crowned.  He  married 
Rikissa,  a  sister  of  Valdemar  the  Victorious. 
His  posthumous  son,  Eric,  succeeded  John,  the 
last  king  of  the  House  of  Sverker,  in  1222,  though 
he  was  only  six  years  of  age.  In  his  reign  a  Papal 
Legate,  William  of  Sabina,  summoned  a  church 
council  at  Skeninge,  1248,  at  which  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Swedish  Church  was  completed.  The 
celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  introduced.     Bishops 


180  The  Story  of  Sweden 

were  to  be  elected  by  the  chapters,  the  canons  of 
the  Episcopal  sees.  The  study  of  canonical  law 
was  enjoined  on  the  bishops.  The  weak  King  Eric, 
who  was  nicknamed  "the  Lisping  and  the  Lame," 
was  actually  dethroned  for  some  years  and  sought 
the  support  of  the  House  of  the  Folkungs,  the 
leading  member  of  which,  Earl  Birger  of  Bjalbo, 
had  married  his  sister.  Birger  suppressed  all 
revolts  and  ruled  Sweden  in  all  but  name. 

After  1240  the  Christians  in  Finland  and  the 
Swedish  settlement  round  the  city  Abo,  a  bishop's 
see,  were  hard  pressed  by  Carelians  and  Russians, 
and  Alexander  Nevski  was  victorious  against  the 
Swedes.  The  Pope  exhorted  the  Swedes  to  go 
on  a  crusade  to  Finland,  and  Birger  carried  it 
out  in  1249.  He  conquered  and  Christianized 
Tavastland  and  built  the  fortress  of  Tavastehus. 
After  his  crusade  the  Swedes  held  Abo  province, 
Nyland,  and  Tavastland,  but  the  news  of  the 
death  of  King  Eric,  1250,  called  Birger  home  from 
his  unfinished  conquests.  Before  he  returned, 
his  son  Valdemar  had  been  elected  king,  since 
not  Birger  himself  but  his  wife  was  of  royal  birth. 
The  angry  Birger  asked  the  noblemen  how  they 
dared  elect  his  son  king  without  his  knowledge. 
The  chieftain,  Joar,  then  declared  that  if  Birger 
were  dissatisfied  they  could  easily  elect  another 
king.  "Whom  will  you  then  choose  for  king?" 
asked  Birger.  Joar  answered:  "From  under  my 
cloak  here  I,  too,  might  easily  let  a  king  come 
forth."     As  Valdemar  was  a  child  not  of  age  his 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  181 

father  ruled  the  kingdom.  Revolts  by  pretenders 
to  the  crown  were  suppressed.  Trade  flourished. 
He  made  a  commercial  treaty  with  Lubeck. 
German  immigrants  taught  mining  and  industrial 
arts.  Stockholm  rose  to  be  the  chief  city  of 
Sweden.  Birger  fortified  it  and  walled  it  in.  He 
was  a  great  lawmaker.  At  Valdemar's  wedding 
he  promulgated  the  law  that  a  sister  shall  inherit 
equally  with  a  brother  and  share  equally.  Ordeal 
was  abolished  and  certain  degrees  of  slavery. 
Every  breaker  of  the  home  peace,  the  women's 
peace,  the  church  peace,  and  the  assembly  peace 
was  to  be  outlawed.  Birger  married  Mechtild, 
the  widow  of  the  Danish  King  Abel,  while  his  son 
Valdemar  married  the  Danish  Princess  Sophia. 
Birger  created  his  son  Magnus  Duke  of  Soder- 
manland.  It  is  the  first  time  the  title  of  "duke" 
occurs  in  Sweden.  Birger  is  the  last,  as  he  is  the 
greatest,  Earl  of  Sweden,  the  first  of  its  rulers  who 
deserves  to  be  called  a  statesman.  He  died  in 
1266. 

King  Valdemar  lived  wholly  for  his  own  plea- 
sures, and  his  brother,  Duke  Magnus,  after  defeat- 
ing him  in  battle  with  Danish  assistance,  was 
elected  king,  1275.  He  assumed  the  title  of 
"King  of  the  Swedes  and  Goths,"  instead  of  the 
usual  "King  of  the  Swedes."  He  married  Helvig, 
a  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Holstein.  German 
knights  were  in  such  favour  at  his  splendour- 
loving  court  that  Swedish  noblemen  joined  in  a 
conspiracy  against  them;  but   Magnus  had   the 


182  The  Story  of  Sweden 

leaders  executed,  1280.  The  peasants  called 
him  Ladulas  (the  one  who  locks  the  barns), 
because  he  abolished  the  custom  that  the  nobles 
when  travelling  with  their  retinue  through  the 
country  took  from  the  larders  and  barns  of  the 
peasants  all  that  they  needed  without  paying  for 
it.  This  was  enacted  by  the  Alsno  Assembly, 
1280;  and  also  that  all  who  performed  military 
service  on  horseback  should  enjoy  freedom  from 
taxation  (frdlse)  for  themselves  and  their  estates. 
The  armoured  knights  in  possession  of  this  privi- 
lege soon  became  a  military  caste.  He  also 
exempted  church  property  from  taxation.  Under 
him  Sweden  gained  such  predominance  in  the 
North  that  the  isle  of  Gotland,  till  then  independ- 
ent, subjected  itself  of  its  own  free  will  to  Mag- 
nus in  1285.  Gotland  had  been  for  centuries  the 
centre  of  the  Baltic  trade,  and  Visby  on  its  west 
coast  was  the  largest  and  richest  emporium  of 
trade  in  all  Scandinavia.  It  was  a  member  of 
the  Haciseatic  League,  and  inhabited  by  German 
merchants.  On  the  death  of  Magnus,  1290, 
Torgils  Cnutsson  acted  as  regent  and  as  guardian 
of  his  eleven-year-old  son,  King  Birger.  Torgils 
was  a  statesman  of  the  type  of  Earl  Birger  and 
Magnus  Ladulas.  The  latter  half  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  during  which  they  successively 
ruled  Sweden,  was  a  glorious  time,  a  parallel  to 
the  age  of  the  Valdemars  (1157-1241)  in  Denmark. 
The  great  provincial  laws  were  taken  down  in 
writing.     The   threats   of   Pope   Bonifacius   VIII 


Viking  Age  and  Early  Middle  Age  183 

against  the  encroachments  of  the  Crown  on  the 
Church  were  ignored.  Eastern  Carelia  was  con- 
tinually disputed  by  Russian  and  Swedes.  Tor- 
gils  went  on  a  crusade  to  Finland,  1293,  subdued 
the  Carelians,  and  founded  the  city  of  Viborg. 
On  his  second  expedition  to  Finland  he  penetrated 
to  Lake  Ladoga,  drove  back  the  Russians  of  Nov- 
gorod, and  built  a  stronghold  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Neva.  Thus  he  completed  the  civilizing  work  of 
St.  Eric  and  Earl  Birger  in  Finland.  He  arranged 
an  intermarriage  with  the  Royal  House  of  Den- 
mark, King  Birger  marrying  Margaret,  sister  of 
King  Eric  Maendved  of  Denmark,  who,  in  his 
turn,  married  Ingeborg,  Birger's  sister.  Eric, 
Duke  of  Sodermanland,  and  Valdemar,  Duke  of 
Finland,  had  designs  upon  the  throne  of  their 
brother.  Duke  Eric  betrothed  himself  to  Inge- 
borg, the  two-year-old  daughter  of  King  Hakon 
V  of  Norway,  and  the  heir  to  his  throne,  to  sup- 
port his  cause.  The  Dukes  found  that  they  were 
always  worsted  by  Torgils,  and  persuaded  Birger 
that  he  was  the  cause  of  their  feuds.  The  three 
brothers  arrested  Torgils,  and  by  the  King's  order, 
he  was  publicly  beheaded  at  Stockholm,  1306. 
"This  will  disgrace  you  everlastingly  while  you 
live,  Lord  King,"  he  said  when  arrested,  and  his 
words  came  true.  The  Dukes  threw  off  the  mask 
a  few  months  later,  and  took  the  King  and  his 
family  prisoners  while  they  were  his  guests  at  the 
royal  farm,  Hatuna,  1306.  After  hostilities  last- 
ing four  years,  Sweden  was  partitioned  between 


1 84  The  Story  of  Sweden 

the  three  brothers,  through  the  mediation  of  the 
Kings  of  Denmark  and  Norway,  13 10.  Duke 
Eric  had  now  married  the  Norwegian  princess; 
their  son  Magnus  was  heir  to  Norway,  and 
Sweden  would  be  his,  when  Eric  had  dethroned 
the  weak  Birger.  But  Birger  took  revenge  on 
his  brothers  by  treachery  even  blacker  than  theirs. 
In  13 1 7  he  invited  them  to  a  splendid  banquet  at 
Nykoping  Castle.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  he 
entered  their  bedrooms  with  armed  retainers,  who 
loaded  them,  half-naked  and  bleeding  from  in- 
flicted wounds,  with  chains  and  cast  them  into 
the  deepest  dungeon  of  the  castle,  Birger  mean- 
while taunting  them  with  their  "joke  at  Hatuna." 
This  took  place  in  the  night  between  the  I oth  and 
nth  of  December,  13 17,  and  after  lingering  half 
a  year  the  two  brothers  died,  it  is  surmised,  of 
hunger,  in  131 8,  the  King  having  thrown  the  keys 
of  their  dungeon  into  the  river  flowing  past  the 
castle.  All  Sweden  rose  to  avenge  the  heinous 
deed.  Birger's  chief  adviser  was  executed,  and 
when  his  innocent  son,  too,  was  put  to  death, 
to  expiate  his  crime,  Birger  died  of  grief  in  his 
exile  in  Denmark,  1321.  He  is  the  only  Swedish 
king  buried  in  Danish  soil,  at  Ringsted. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

UNION  WITH  NORWAY  (1319-71)  AND  WITH 
DENMARK  (1389-I521) 

In  May,  131 9,  all  Sweden  elected  the  three-year- 
old  Magnus,  Duke  Eric's  only  son,  king.  When 
his  grandfather,  Hakon  V  of  Norway,  died,  the 
same  year,  the  child-king  succeeded  him.  But 
this  union  between  Sweden  and  Norway  was  a 
union  only  in  name.  The  State  Council  of  each 
kingdom  ruled  it  independently  of  the  other. 
The  Swedish  nobility  elected  Matts  Kettilmunds- 
son  regent  during  the  minority  of  Magnus.  They 
formed  a  league,  in  1322,  to  deprive  the  King's 
mother,  Duchess  Ingeborg,  and  her  Danish  favour- 
ite of  all  power.  For  the  next  two  centuries 
( 1 322-1 523)  the  aristocracy  generally  usurped  the 
royal  power,  and  ruled  Sweden.  The  war  against 
Novgorod,  which  had  continued  since  the  time 
of  Torgils  Cnutsson,  ended  in  the  first  peace  treaty 
ever  concluded  between  Sweden  and  Russia — 
the  Peace  of  Noteborg,  1323.  Western  Carelia 
and  Savolaks  were  ceded  to  Sweden.  The  Fin- 
nish tribes  in  Esthonia  and  Livonia  were  enslaved 
by  the  Teutonic  knights,  while  Finland,  sharing 

185 


1 86  The  Story  of  Sweden 

in  a  higher  culture  and  freedom  through  its  close 
union  with  Sweden,  rose  in  the  scale  of  civiliza- 
tion. Even  the  Lapps  in  the  extreme  north 
acknowledged  Swedish  suzerainty.  When  King 
Magnus  came  of  age  (1322)  he  found  the  treasury 
empty.  Denmark  was  on  the  verge  of  dissolu- 
tion, and  in  1332  the  Scanians  rose  against  their 
German  masters  and  joined  Sweden,  whereupon 
the  Count  of  Holstein  ceded  Scania  and  Blekinge 
to  Sweden  for  a  large  sum  of  money.  After  an 
interregnum  of  eight  years  Valdemar  Atterdag, 
King  of  Denmark  (1340-75),  ceded  to  Magnus 
Halland,  in  addition  to  his  rights  in  Scania  and 
Blekinge,  for  50,000  marks  silver  (15  million  "kro- 
nor,"  or  £840,000  in  the  money  of  the  present 
day).  Magnus  mortgaged  and  borrowed  and  got 
head  over  ears  into  debt  to  pay  Valdemar  this 
sum.  He  caused  such  discontent  in  Norway, 
which  he  hardly  ever  visited — though  he  was  to 
divide  his  time  equally  between  the  two  kingdoms 
— and  wholly  neglected,  that  the  State  Councils 
of  Norway  and  Sweden,  in  a  joint  meeting  at 
Varberg  (1343),  elected  his  younger  son,  Hakon, 
King  of  Norway;  his  father  was  to  govern  that 
kingdom  in  his  name  until  Hakon  VI  came  of 
age  in  1355.  Eric,  his  elder  son,  was  elected 
heir  to  the  Swedish  throne,  1344. 

Magnus  appointed  a  committee  to  unify  the 
laws  of  Sweden  into  a  code  of  laws,  common  for 
the  whole  country.  This  was  finished  in  1347, 
and   thereupon   accepted   province  by  province. 


Union  with  Norway  and  Denmark    187 

According  to  it  the  king  shall  be  elected  by  the 
lawmen  and  by  twelve  men,  "wise  and  good," 
from  each  law  district,  who  are  to  meet  at  the 
Mora  stones  near  Uppsala  for  this  election.  The 
elected  king  shall  first  take  the  royal  oath,  stand- 
ing on  a  Mora  stone.  Then  ride  his  Eriksgata, 
i.  e.,  the  royal  journey  to  receive  homage  in  each 
province.  At  the  boundary  of  each  province  its 
yeomen  welcome  him  solemnly  and  accompany 
him  on  horseback  to  their  Assembly,  at  which 
homage  and  fealty  are  sworn  and  gifts  exchanged, 
whereupon  they  follow  him  in  a  body  to  the  bound- 
ary of  the  next  province.  (It  was  on  his  Eriks- 
gata that  Magnus  abolished  slavery  where  it  still 
existed.)  Thereupon  the  king  shall  be  crowned 
by  the  archbishop.  He  shall  nominate  spiritual 
and  temporal  lords  to  form  a  council.  In  the 
royal  oath  he  promises  to  rule  the  kingdom  as 
advised  by  the  Council,  to  uphold  law  and  justice, 
to  protect  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich,  and  to  de- 
fend the  country  against  its  enemies.  No  new 
law  must  be  promulgated  without  the  consent  of 
his  people.  If  a  new  tax  were  necessary  each 
province  by  itself  was  to  decide  how  much  it 
would  grant. 

St.  Birgitta  (1303-73)  was  the  first  Swede 
who  attained  European  fame  and  influence.  Her 
father  was  Lawman  Briger,  her  mother  related  to 
the  Royal  Family,  her  husband  Ulf,  a  member  of 
the  State  Council.  On  the  death  of  her  husband, 
about  1343,  "She  took  Christ  for  her  bridegroom," 


1 88  The  Story  of  Sweden 

and  what  she  saw  and  heard  in  visions  was  written 
down  by  herself  and  her  confessors  in  no  less  than 
eight  books  of  "Revelations."  Mistress  of  the 
Robes  to  the  young  Queen  of  Magnus,  Blanche  of 
Namur,  she  reproved  the  frivolous  life  at  the  Court, 
and  warned  Magnus  against  Valdemar  of  Denmark, 
"This  flatterer  who  pipes  to  catch  the  bird." 
Her  prophecy  came  true  in  1360.  She  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Rome  through  the  horrors  of  the 
Black  Death,  took  up  her  abode  there,  and  set 
herself  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  Church.  She 
poured  her  wrath,  like  Isaiah,  over  the  head  of  the 
Pope  at  Avignon,  and  it  was  partly  owing  to  her 
that  the  Popes  returned  to  Rome.  She  died  in 
Rome  on  her  return  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusa- 
lem, seventy  years  old  (1373),  and  was  canon- 
ized and  inscribed  in  the  Golden  Book  of  Saints 
by  the  Pope  in  1391.  In  1370  she  at  last  got  the 
Pope  to  approve  the  monastic  order  of  the  Birgit- 
tines,  for  whom  she  had  provided  the  monastery 
of  Vadstena,  which  became  the  richest  and  most 
famous  in  the  North.  Nuns  and  monks  lived  side 
by  side  in  the  Birgittine  monasteries,  which  sprang 
up  in  every  country  in  Europe.  They  favoured 
literary  studies,  and  laid  stress  upon  using  the 
native  tongue  both  for  writing  and  preaching; 
they  used  a  language  common  to  all  Scandinavia. 
Vadstena  was  a  kind  of  inter-Scandinavian  uni- 
versity, and  had  the  largest  library  in  the  North. 
Magnus  gained  no  glory,  only  new  debts,  from 
his  wars  against  the  Russians  (1348-50),  at  a  time 


Union  with  Norway  and  Denmark     189 

when  the  Black  Death  killed  off  over  one  third 
of  the  population  of  Sweden  (1350),  as  it  did  in 
Denmark  and  Norway.  He  borrowed  money 
from  the  Pope,  who  excommunicated  him  for  non- 
payment of  it.  He  mortgaged  the  herring  tolls  of 
Scania  to  celebrate  the  wedding  of  his  sister, 
Euphemia,  to  Duke  Albrecht  of  Mecklenburg. 
At  last  the  nobles  rose  against  him,  with  his  son 
Erik  at  their  head  (1356),  and  father  and  son 
divided  kingdom  and  kingship.  Magnus  be- 
came sole  King  of  Sweden  again  in  1359,  when 
Erik  died,  of  poison  it  was  rumoured.  Valdemar 
of  Denmark  was  bent  on  winning  back  Scania, 
and  in  1360  he  seized  Helsingborg  by  treachery, 
and  became  master  of  Scania,  Blekinge,  and  South 
Halland.  The  lost  provinces  thus  came  back  to 
Denmark  after  one  generation.  In  136 1  Valdemar 
ravaged  Gotland  and  seized  an  immense  booty 
in  Visby.  The  nobles  had  set  King  Hakon  of 
Norway  against  his  father,  too;  but,  after  being 
elected  his  father's  co-regent  and  King  of  Sweden 
(1362)  Hakon  supported  him  against  the  nobles, 
assisted  by  Valdemar  of  Denmark.  The  Swedish 
Council  compelled  Magnus  to  betroth  Hakon  to 
Elizabeth,  a  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Holstein, 
but  she  was  shipwrecked  on  the  Scanian  coast 
on  her  way  to  Sweden  and  the  Danish  archbishop 
detained  her  on  the  pretence  that  her  marriage 
would  be  a  breach  of  the  canonic  law.  Then 
Magnus  and  Queen  Blanche  (of  Namur)  took 
Hakon   to   Copenhagen   and   betrothed    him   to 


190  The  Story  of  Sweden 

King  Valdemar's  six-year-old  daughter,  Margaret 
(J359);  Valdemar  promised  Magnus  Helsingborg. 
Hakon  was  married  to  the  ten-year-old  Margaret 
in  1363. 

The  nobles,  angry  at  the  pusillanimity  of 
Magnus,  and  the  loss  of  Scania  in  1360,  offered 
the  Swedish  crown  to  Albrecht,  the  son  of  Duke 
Albrecht  of  Mecklenburg  and  Euphemia,  Magnus's 
sister.  The  Duke  accepted,  surprised  his  unsus- 
pecting brother-in-law,  seized  Stockholm  and  had 
his  son  elected  King  of  Sweden  at  the  Mora 
stones,  1364.  Civil  war  now  raged  for  years. 
Albrecht  beat  Magnus  and  Hakon  in  a  battle  at 
Enkoping  (1365)  and  took  Magnus  prisoner. 
Hakon 's  father-in-law,  Valdemar,  occupied  North 
Halland  and  Gotland,  ostensibly  for  Hakon,  but 
really  for  himself.  The  Swedish  peasants  now 
rose  against  the  German  oppressors,  and  Hakon 
marched  with  an  army  to  Stockholm,  but  the 
nobles  on  both  sides  then  came  to  terms  at  the 
expense  of  their  kings  (137 1).  Albrecht  was  to 
remain  King  as  a  mere  puppet  of  the  Council  of 
Nobles,  a  council  empowered  to  appoint  its  own 
members  itself  and  to  grant  all  fiefs.  Magnus 
was  released  on  recognizing  Albrecht  as  King, 
and  was  drowned,  in  1374,  in  Norway.  The 
Swedes  nicknamed  him  Smek  (the  effeminate). 
After  half  a  century  (1319-71)  the  union  of  Sweden 
and  Norway  was  thus  dissolved.  At  first  the 
German  influence  predominated  in  Sweden,  but 
it  was  soon  ousted  by  the  Swedish  Council;  the 


Union  with  Norway  and  Denmark    191 

chief  justiciary  (drots)  of  Sweden,  Bo  Jonsson, 
held  in  mortgage,  or  as  fief,  all  Finland  and  two 
thirds  of  Sweden.  This  immense  wealth  was 
gained  by  fraud  and  violence,  for  the  lawless 
noblemen  plundered  and  killed  with  impunity. 
When  Bo  Jonsson  died,  in  1386,  the  King  appointed 
himself  executor  of  his  will,  but  the  ten  State 
Councillors  whom  the  deceased  had  designated 
as  executors  took  possession  of  his  estates  and 
appealed  for  help  to  Margaret  (Margrete),  Regent 
of  Denmark  and  Norway.  On  condition  of  being 
elected  Regent  of  Sweden  and  getting  possession 
of  a  large  number  of  Bo  Jonsson's  estates,  she 
agreed  to  assist  them  against  Albrecht  (1388). 
King  Albrecht  used  insulting  words  about  the 
"trouserless  king,"  assumed  the  title  of  King  of 
Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  and  brought  a 
German  army  over  from  Mecklenburg.  In  a 
battle  near  Falkoping  (1389)  he  was  defeated  and 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Queen's  Dano-Norwegian- 
Swedish  army.  But  the  Germans  still  held  Stock- 
holm, whose  German  burgesses  made  themselves 
sole  masters  of  the  city,  getting  rid  of  their  Swedish 
fellow-citizens  by  murder  and  arson.  German 
pirates,  who  called  themselves  Vitalians  (i.  e., 
Victuallers,  as  they  pretended  to  be  carrying 
victuals  to  the  besieged  Stockholm),  infested  the 
Baltic  for  eight  years,  and  Gotland  became  a  nest 
of  these  robbers.  The  Hanseates  brought  about 
the  conclusion  of  a  compact  at  Lindholm,  where 
Albrecht  was  imprisoned,  in  1395;  he  was  released 


192  The  Story  of  Sweden 

on  condition  of  either  paying  Margaret  a  ransom 
of  sixty  thousand  marks  silver  within  three  years, 
i.  e.,  in  1398,  or  surrendering  Stockholm  to  her, 
the  Hanseates  to  hold  Stockholm  in  the  meantime. 
Margaret1  took  possession  of  Stockholm  in  1398, 
as  Albrecht  failed  to  pay  his  ransom ;  the  same  year 
the  Teutonic  Knights  conquered  Gotland  and 
put  an  end  to  the  piracy  of  the  Vitalians. 

Eric  of  Pomerania  (1396- 1439)  rarely  visited 
Sweden,  and  the  royal  officers  there,  almost  all 
of  them  Danes,  could  act  as  they  pleased,  and 
perpetrated  cruel  extortions.  He  offended  the 
Swedish  church  by  appointing  as  Archbishop  of 
Uppsala  a  dissolute  Dane,  who  had  to  be  deprived 
of  the  archbishopric.  Eric  then  made  him  Bishop 
of  Skalholt  in  Iceland,  where  he  was  pulled  from 
the  high  altar  of  the  cathedral  in  full  canonicals 
and  drowned,  with  a  bag  over  his  head,  in  a  river, 
by  his  congregation,  1433.  The  Swedish  peasants 
were  oppressed. 

It  is  reported  that  the  Dane,  Josse  (Jens)  Eriks- 
son, after  seizing  the  horses  of  the  Dalecarlians 
for  arrears  of  taxation,  harnessed  the  men  to  the 
ploughs  and  their  wives  to  the  carts.  The  freedom- 
loving  Dalecarlians  were  in  danger  of  being  en- 
slaved like  the  Danish  peasants. 

A  Dalecarlian  of  noble  birth,  Engelbrekt  Engel- 
brektsson,  came  forward  in  his  country's  need. 
He  personally  laid  the  complaints  of  the  Dale- 
carlians before  Eric,  until  the  King  burst  out  in 

1  For  the  reign  of  Margaret  (1389-1412)  see  Denmark. 


Union  with  Norway  and  Denmark    193 

anger:  "Do  not  come  before  my  eyes  again  with 
your  continual  plaints."  Engelbrekt  replied: 
"I  shall  come  back  once  more,  but  only  once." 
The  Dalecarlians  were  put  off  with  false  promises 
by  the  Swedish  Council,  and  they  rose  at  mid- 
summer, 1434.  Stronghold  after  stronghold  fell 
before  their  fury,  determined  as  they  were  to 
drive  their  oppressors  over  the  border.  With 
fiery  eloquence  Engelbrekt  implored  the  State 
Councillors  sitting  at  Vadstena  to  save  the  people 
and  depose  King  Eric.  As  they  refused,  he  seized 
some  of  them  by  the  neck  and  threatened  to  hand 
them  over  to  the  angry  Dalesmen  waiting  outside. 
Thereupon  they  all  signed  the  act  deposing  King 
Eric  which  Engelbrekt  laid  before  them.  In 
less  than  four  months  all  Sweden,  except  a  few 
strongholds,  was  freed  from  the  foreign  yoke. 
Tradition  tells  that  no  peasant  lost  as  much  as 
one  hen's  value  in  the  whole  campaign.  Engel- 
brekt called  a  parliament  at  Arboga,  January, 
1435,  which  elected  him  regent.  It  was  the  first 
Parliament  in  Sweden  to  which  burgesses  and 
peasants  were  summoned.  Eric  was  deposed  by 
Parliament  in  1436,  and  the  nobles,  fearing  the 
popularity  of  the  great  leader,  elected  Karl  Knuts- 
son  regent.  Engelbrekt  was  foully  and  treacher- 
ously murdered  by  the  son  of  a  State  Councillor, 
when  on  his  way  to  Stockholm  and  ill  from  over- 
exertion, on  April  27,  1436.  He  was  struck  down 
with  an  axe,  and  his  dead  body,  pierced  with 
arrows,  was  buried  by  peasants  in  tears.     In  less 


194  The  Story  of  Sweden 

than  two  years  the  "Liberator"  made  a  deep  and 
enduring  mark  on  Swedish  history.  When  he 
called  to  life  the  national  feeling  of  all  classes  and 
of  all  provinces,  in  defence  of  freedom,  he  made 
the  Swedes  a  nation.  He  re-established  the  old 
independence  of  the  Swedish  peasantry,  and,  like 
Simon  de  Montfort,  he  was  the  first  to  summon 
burgesses  and  peasants  to  represent  the  nation  in 
Parliament. 

The  Swedish  nobles  now  had  it  all  their  own 
way.  After  negotiations  with  Eric,  Karl  Knuts- 
son  was  elected  regent  (Riksfore-Standare),  1483. 
It  was  the  first  time  this  title  was  used,  the  earlier 
being  rikshofvitsman.  Eric  was  finally  deposed 
in  1439,  and  Christopher  of  Bavaria  elected  King, 
1440. 

On  Christopher's  death  (1448)  Karl  Knutsson 
was  elected  King  of  Sweden  and  in  November,  1449, 
he  was  crowned  King  of  Norway  in  Trondhjem 
Cathedral  by  the  Norwegian  Archbishop.  The 
Norwegian  Act  of  Allegiance  declared:  "These 
two  kingdoms,  Sweden  and  Norway,  which  God  has 
so  closely  joined  by  land,  shall  never  be  sundered." 
Yet  within  six  months  twelve  Danish  and  twelve 
Swedish  State  Councillors  had  agreed,  in  a  joint 
meeting  at  Halmstad  (1450),  that  Norway  should 
belong  to  Christian  I  of  Denmark,  who  had  been 
elected  King  of  Norway  by  the  Norwegian  State 
Council,  June,  1449,  while  the  one  of  the  two  kings 
who  survived  the  other  should  be  king  of  the  three 
kingdoms.     This  was  enacted  against  the  will  of 


Union  with  Norway  and  Denmark     195 

the  Swedish  King,  and  a  long  war  broke  out  be- 
tween Sweden  and  Denmark.  Finally,  the  Swed- 
ish Archbishop  deposited  his  crozier  on  the  high 
altar  of  his  cathedral,  and,  swearing  not  to  carry 
it  till  all  was  changed  in  Sweden,  donned  armour 
and  wounded  the  King  in  a  surprise  attack,  so 
that  he  fled  to  Germany  (1457).  But  after  seven 
years  of  the  rule  of  Christian  I,  and  of  heavy 
taxation,  the  Swedes  rose  (1464)  and  called  King 
Karl  back;  after  six  months,  however,  the  Arch- 
bishop compelled  him  to  resign  the  crown,  but 
he  was  King  again  1467-70.  On  his  death-bed 
(1470)  Karl  nominated  Sten  Sture,  a  son  of  his 
half-sister,  as  his  successor,  but  warned  him  not 
to  wear  the  crown,  since  it  had  brought  him  only 
grief  and  unhappiness.  Sten  Sture,  the  hero  of 
many  battles,  was  then  elected  regent.  He 
defeated  Christian  I,  in  a  hard-fought  battle  at 
Brunkeberg,  October  10,  1471,  by  sheer  bravery 
and  by  superior  tactics.  Christian  was  wounded, 
and  the  flower  of  the  Danish  nobility  lay  dead 
round  the  royal  standard,  the  Danebrog,  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  Thereafter 
Denmark  left  Sweden  in  peace  for  a  generation. 

Sten  Sture  was  great  in  peace  as  in  war.  The 
University  of  Uppsala  was  founded  in  1477,  two 
years  before  the  Copenhagen  University,  owing 
to  him  and  the  Archbishop,  who  also  favoured  the 
printing  of  the  first  books  in  Sweden,  1483. 

Sten  Sture  the  Elder,  as  he  is  called,  was  com- 
pelled by  the  nobles  to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty 


196  The  Story  of  Sweden 


of  King  Hans  of  Denmark  over  Sweden,  in  1483; 
but  it  was  only  nominal,  except  during  1497-1501, 
and  in  spite  of  an  unlucky  war  with  Russia,  Sture 
held  his  own  till  his  death  in  1503. 

Svante  Sture,  regent  1503-12,  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  Sten  Sture  the  Younger,  regent  1512- 
20,  on  whom  the  great  qualities  of  his  namesake 
seemed  to  have  descended.  The  family  feud 
between  the  Sture  and  the  Trolle  families  reached 
a  crisis  when  Gustaf  Trolle,  elected  Archbishop 
of  Uppsala  in  151 3,  refused  to  do  homage  to  the 
regent,  and  allied  himself  with  Christian  II  of 
Denmark. * 

1  See  Denmark,  Christian  II. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

GUSTAVUS     VASA      (1523-60) — THE     REFORMATION 

Gustavus  Vasa  was  born  in  Uppland  on,  prob- 
ably, May  12,  1496.  His  father,  Erik  Johansson, 
member  of  the  State  Council,  came  of  a  noble 
family  who  took  the  name  of  their  estate,  Vasa. 
His  mother  was  Cecilia  Man's  daughter,  a  half- 
sister  of  Sture's  wife,  the  heroic  Christina  Gyllen- 
stierna.  The  family  generally  took  the  Danish 
side  in  the  wars  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  after 
the  intermarriage  with  the  Stures  they  defended 
the  national  cause.  Gustaf  was  eighteen  when 
he  came  to  the  Court  of  Sture  to  complete  his 
education.  He  was  his  standard-bearer  in  the 
victorious  battle  of  Brannkyrka,  and  was  one  of 
the  six  hostages  delivered  to  Christian  and 
treacherously  carried  off  to  Denmark,  1 5 1 8.  It  was 
this  treachery  which  saved  his  life.  For  a  twelve- 
month he  was  the  prisoner  of  a  distant  kinsman 
of  his,  Erik  Baner,  in  his  castle  on  the  island  of 
Kalo,  Jutland.  In  September,  1519,  he  escaped, 
disguised  as  a  horse-dealer,  to  Lubeck,  to  fight 
against  the  Danes.  Lubeck  refused  extradition, 
and  Baner  had  to  pay  Christian  II  1600  florins 

197 


198  The  Story  of  Sweden 

as  forfeit  money.  The  magistrates  of  Lubeck 
helped  Gustaf  to  slip  away,  and  on  May  31,  1520, 
he  landed  near  Kalmar,  then  besieged  by  the  Danes. 
A  hunted  exile,  he  wandered  through  his  country. 
In  vain  he  tried  to  dissuade  his  brother-in-law 
from  attending  Christian's  coronation.  He  was 
in  hiding  at  Rafsnas  on  Lake  Malaren,  his  father's 
estate,  when  the  news  of  the  Stockholm  Massacre 
was  brought  to  him  by  a  peasant;  his  father  and 
his  brother-in-law  publicly  executed;  his  mother 
and  sisters  imprisoned;  a  price  set  upon  his  own 
head.  But  he  forgot  his  own  woes.  Like  Engel- 
brekt  and  the  Stures  he  decided  to  make  an  appeal 
to  the  yeomen  of  the  Dales,  the  Dalecarlians,  to 
rise  in  arms  to  save  their  country.  Disguised  as 
a  Dalecarlian,  seeking  work,  he  set  off  on  foot, 
with  an  axe  over  his  shoulder — single-handed 
against  the  mighty  ruler  of  three  kingdoms — at 
the  end  of  November,  1520.  He  took  service  with 
a  school  friend,  but  he  dared  not  harbour  him, 
and  the  squire  in  whose  house  he  next  found  shelter 
would  have  earned  the  reward  set  on  his  head  but 
for  the  presence  of  mind  of  his  own  wife,  who 
packed  Gustaf  off  in  a  sledge.  The  sleeping-room 
at  Ornas  where  he  was  betrayed  to  a  Danish 
bailiff  is  still  preserved  as  a  national  relic.  He 
was  now  hunted  like  a  wild  beast  from  one  hiding- 
place  to  another,  travelling  in  trusses  of  hay,  and 
sleeping  on  a  bed  of  withered  leaves  in  the  forest. 
A  cluster  of  legends  has  gathered  round  his 
many  miraculous  hairbreadth  escapes.     By  Christ- 


GUSTAVUS    VASA 


Gustavus  Vasa  199 

mas,  1520,  he  reached  Lake  Siljan,  in  the  heart  of 
Dalecarlia,  the  nursery  of  patriotism,  which  time 
after  time  had  risen  against  alien  dominion  and 
shaken  off  foreign  yoke.  At  Rattvik  and  at 
Mora  he  ventured  to  speak  to  the  peasantry  as- 
sembled after  church.  In  eloquent  moving  words 
he  described  the  atrocities  of  Christian  and  the 
dire  need  of  Sweden,  reminded  them  of  the  great 
deeds  of  their  fathers,  and  called  on  them  to  save 
themselves  from  serfdom.  But  they  were  weary 
of  the  continual  wars.  They  thought  it  was  only 
the  lords  and  the  nobles  that  Christian  wanted  to 
massacre,  not  the  common  people.  They  turned 
deaf  ears  to  Gustaf's  eloquence.  Disheartened, 
despairing,  he  started  on  snow-shoes  through  the 
wide  tracts  of  forest  on  the  borders  across  the 
mountains  into  Norway.  But  a  week  after  he 
left  Mora  fugitives  arrived  who  brought  the  news 
of  further  atrocities  by  King  Christian,  that  he 
would  pass  through  Dalecarlia  on  his  journey  of 
homage  and  that  gallows  were  to  be  erected  at 
every  manor-house  on  his  route.  Besides,  on 
his  return  journey  to  Denmark  in  December, 
1520,  he  had  imposed  a  new  tax  on  agricultural 
produce,  to  be  levied  in  kind,  and  ordered  that 
all  peasants  should  deliver  up  their  arms.  The 
Dalecarlians  now  repented  that  they  had  not 
listened  to  Gustaf,  and  sent  two  swift  runners  on 
snow-shoes,  travelling  night  and  day,  to  call  him 
back.  They  overtook  him  in  a  village  near  the 
frontier.     He  returned  to  Mora,  where  the  leading 


200  The  Story  of  Sweden 

men  of  East  and  West  Dalecarlia  assembled. 
In  January,  1521,  they  elected  him  "Lord  of  the 
Dales  and  of  Sweden."  King  Christian  had  not 
yet  left  Sweden.  Two  hundred  young  Dalecar- 
lians  joined  him  at  once,  but  the  number  increased 
every  day  and  some  old  men-at-arms  trained  them. 
At  the  Kopparberg,  he  seized  the  goods  of  the 
German  merchants  as  the  tax-gatherers'  treasury, 
whereupon  Southern  Dalecarlia  joined  him.  Some 
of  the  neighbouring  provinces  joined,  others 
hesitated.  The  Danish  Government  at  Stock- 
holm at  first  thought  they  could  quell  the  rising 
by  admonitory  letters.  Not  till  April  did  Didrik 
Slagheck  and  Archbishop  Trolle  set  out  with  six 
thousand  Danes  and  Germans  and  French  and 
Scotch  mercenaries  against  the  peasants.  At 
Brunnback  ferry  on  the  Dalelf  (Dale  River)  they 
saw  thousands  of  peasants  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  river,  and  the  Swedish  nobles  told  the  Danish 
bishop  Beldenak  that  all  these  peasants  drank 
little  but  water  and  were  content  to  eat  bark 
bread.  The  bishop  then  declared  that  ' '  Men  who 
can  eat  wood  and  drink  water  will  not  yield  to 
the  Devil  himself,  much  less  to  mere  men;  my 
brethren,  let  us  decamp  at  once."  But  the  Dale- 
carlians  followed  the  retreating  Danes,  and  de- 
feated them.  Gustaf  now  ventured  to  march 
against  the  fortress  of  Vesteras  with  nearly  fifteen 
thousand  men.  On  April  29th  the  Danish  cavalry 
dashed  at  the  despised  peasants,  not  dreaming 
they  would  make  a  stand,  but  repeated  charges 


Gustavus  Vasa  201 

failed  to  break  the  serried  ranks  of  peasants  with 
outstretched  pikes.  The  Danes  were  driven  off 
with  heavy  loss,  and  lost  their  artillery.  As 
Gustaf  had  no  artillery  this  was  a  great  gain. 
After  this  victory  he  sent  out  detachments  to 
besiege  fortresses  and  bring  about  risings  in  various 
provinces.  Uppsala  fell,  and  he  asked  the  canons 
of  the  cathedral  chapter  whether  they  were  Swedes 
or  Danes;  they  consulted  the  Archbishop,  to 
whom  Gustaf  wrote,  asking  him  to  forget  family 
feuds  in  order  to  save  Sweden.  The  Archbishop's 
answer  was  to  surprise  him  at  Uppsala  with  an 
armed  force.  Gustaf  was  nearly  drowned  in 
crossing  a  river  as  he  fled  for  his  life.  At  mid- 
summer he  encamped  outside  Stockholm  and  laid 
siege  to  it.  But  he  had  hardly  any  means  of 
taking  fortified  places  except  by  famine,  and  his 
undisciplined  peasants  during  a  long  siege  would 
now  and  then  return  home  to  look  after  their 
fields  and  crops.  He  had  no  ships,  and  could 
only  invest  Stockholm  by  land.  The  siege  was 
raised  after  successful  sallies  by  the  Danes. 
Equally  slow  was  the  siege  by  raw  peasant  levies 
of  the  castles  held  by  the  Danes.  The  rest  of 
Sweden  now  rendered  homage  and  fealty  to  Gustaf, 
province  by  province,  and  even  Bishop  Brask 
of  Linkoping  joined  him.  The  Danish  regent  of 
Sweden,  Didrik  Slagheck,  was  hated  as  the  reputed 
author  of  the  Stockholm  Massacre.  He  was  full 
of  talk  about  hanging  and  quartering  and  other 
atrocities.     Archbishop   Trolle   and   Bishop   Bel- 


202  The  Story  of  Sweden 

denak  complained  of  him  to  King  Christian,  after 
the  defeat  at  Vesteras.  He  was  recalled,  but  did 
not  go.  Trolle  took  the  reins  of  government  and 
summoned  an  assembly  at  Stockholm.  Meanwhile 
the  Estates  of  Southern  Sweden  met  at  Vadstena 
and  elected  Gustaf  regent  of  Sweden  (riks- 
fdrestandarc),  August  23,  1521.  All  Sweden  except 
the  principal  strongholds  had  now  done  him 
homage.  The  siege  of  Stockholm  still  dragged 
wearily  on;  it  was  well  defended  by  Didrik  Slag- 
heck's  brother,  while  Admiral  Soren  Norby, 
one  of  the  naval  heroes  of  Denmark,  continually 
reinforced  and  reprovisioned  it  from  his  safe  re- 
treat in  the  isle  of  Gotland.  Without  a  fleet 
Gustaf  had  no  hope  of  reducing  Stockholm.  He 
therefore  turned  to  the  Hansa  city,  Lubeck,  which 
was  already  hostile  to  Christian  II.  He  wished 
to  exclude  Lubeck  from  the  Baltic  trade,  in  favour 
of  his  own  subjects. 

In  June,  1522,  ten  warships  from  Lubeck  well 
filled  with  horsemen  and  ammunition  arrived, 
and  Stockholm  was  then  invested  and  cut  off  by 
land  and  sea.  Even  Dantzic  joined  the  league 
against  Christian.  An  attempt  by  Admiral  Norby 
to  relieve  Stockholm  was  repulsed,  in  spite  of 
all  his  hardihood  and  bravery.  Christian's  own 
subjects  rose  against  him,  and  Gustaf  occupied 
one  Danish  and  one  Norwegian  province,  as  the 
ally  of  Frederick  I,  who  headed  the  insurrection 
against  Christian.  As  soon  as  Gustaf  heard  of 
Christian's  flight  from  Denmark  he  summoned  a 


Gustavus  Vasa  203 

national  assembly  of  all  estates  at  Strangnas. 
On  June  6,  1523,  a  canon  of  Vesteras  delivered  a 
speech  in  Latin  to  the  assembly.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  elect  a  king  to  prevent  the  new  King  of 
Denmark  from  claiming  the  throne.  None  was 
so  worthy  of  being  the  highest  in  the  land  as 
Gustaf  Eriksson.  The  assembly  was  unanimous 
in  favour  of  Gustaf,  but  he  himself  raised  strong 
objections.  "He  was  weary  of  the  heavy  burden 
which  already  rested  on  his  shoulders,  would  they 
not,"  he  prayed,  "relieve  him  of  it,  and  elect  one 
of  the  elder  nobles  in  the  Council ;  he  would  then 
be  the  first  to  render  him  homage  and  fealty." 
This  was  no  make-believe,  no  pretence  on  his  part. 
But  the  Assembly  unanimously  entreated  him  for 
the  love  of  Sweden,  which  would  fail  utterly  with- 
out him,  to  accept  the  crown;  he  yielded  and  was 
proclaimed  "King  of  the  Swedes  and  Goths." 
The  Council  notified  his  accession  to  the  throne 
to  foreign  monarchs  in  a  State  document  contain- 
ing a  full  account  of  the  cruelties  of  Christian  II. 
Archbishop  Trolle  was  sent  into  exile.  The  re- 
presentatives of  Lubeck  demanded  from  the  new 
King  greatly  enlarged  privileges  as  payment  for 
the  valuable  assistance  rendered  during  the  war, 
privileges  which  made  the  Hansa  the  sole  master 
of  the  whole  trade  of  Sweden,  free  of  customs  and 
duties.  Not  only  was  a  heavy  debt  owing  to 
them,  but  their  help  was  still  required  to  take 
Stockholm.  They  would  make  their  own  terms 
with  Frederick  I,  the  new  King  of  Denmark,  who 


204  The  Story  of  Sweden 

was  willing  to  grant  them  all  their  old  privileges 
in  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  unless  their 
demands  were  complied  with,  was  their  threat. 
Gustaf  conceded  all  their  demands,  yet  with  a 
sore  heart ;  for  he  saw  clearly  that  these  conditions 
were  fetters  laid  on  his  country.  "Kingship  has 
more  gall  than  honey  in  it,"  he  remarked,  as  he 
signed  the  Compact  which  even  some  members 
of  the  Council  refused  to  sign.  After  a  siege  of 
two  years  the  half-depopulated  Stockholm  sur- 
rendered on  June  20,  1523,  its  sufferings  from 
hunger  and  pestilence  having  become  unbearable. 
The  number  of  tax-paying  citizens  had  sunk  to 
one  fourth,  and  Gustaf  grafted  citizens  from  every 
town  in  Sweden  under  compulsion  to  Stockholm 
to  repair  the  losses.  By  October  the  last  fortress 
in  Finland  had  fallen,  and  Admiral  Norby  now 
only  held  the  Isle  of  Gotland  for  Christian  II. 
When  hard  pressed  he  surrendered  the  island,  not 
to  Gustaf,  but  to  Frederick  I  of  Denmark,  in  1524, 
and  when  the  two  kings  met  at  Malmo,  Denmark 
through  the  mediation  of  the  Hansa  obtained 
Gotland  and  Blekinge  and  Sweden  Bahuslen  for 
some  years  only  (1524).  The  war  of  liberation 
was  at  an  end.  Christian  II  had  paved  the  way 
for  Gustaf  by  killing  off  his  rivals  among  the 
aristocracy.  Nearly  all  the  bishoprics  were  va- 
cant. Freedom  was  won,  but  money  and  men  were 
wanted  to  evolve  order  from  the  waste  and  desola- 
tion left  by  the  Danish  wars.  The  revenues  of 
the  Crown  did  not  cover  half  the  daily  expenses 


•-t;A-:rf.v;vJ.i,i.J    .  ,]  a   .  ^!A  r^r ■ppjyywyy*^ .  ■  y    ■  ■. 


O      2 

K       O 


Gustavus  Vasa  205 

of  the  Government.  The  young  King  of  twenty- 
seven  carried  the  whole  burden  of  administration 
on  his  own  shoulders.  He  had  to  look  into  every 
matter  personally  and  travel  from  one  end  of  the 
kingdom  to  the  other,  investigating,  collecting 
information,  advising;  whether  it  was  translating 
the  Bible,  building  a  warship,  repairing  a  shed, 
reforming  the  Church,  he  gave  his  personal  at- 
tention to  it  all.  He  was  literally  the  hardest 
worked  servant  of  his  country,  a  king  in  very 
deed,  not  only  in  name.  The  liberator  became 
the  regenerator  of  his  people.  He  was  hampered 
by  want  of  tools.  On  one  occasion  he  could  not 
find  an  ambassador  with  knowledge  of  German 
to  send  to  Lubeck,  on  another  he  found  no  one 
to  whom  he  could  dictate  a  letter  in  German  to 
Christian  III.  Thus  it  came  about  that  he  had 
to  employ  foreign  adventurers  for  doing  purely 
clerical  work,  which  otherwise  he  must  do  person- 
ally for  want  of  competent  assistance. 

A  strong  monarchy  was  necessary,  but  the  proud 
peasantry  of  Sweden  brooked  little  authority. 
They  had  saved  Sweden.  And  they  knew  it. 
They  were  as  self-willed  and  unruly  in  peace,  as 
they  were  brave  and  dauntless  in  war.  They 
thought  they  could  unseat  the  new  King  as  easily 
as  they  had  seated  him  on  his  throne.  The  Dale- 
carlians  drew  up  a  letter  to  Gustaf  concerning 
their  complaints,  dated  May  Day,  1525.  It  is 
characteristic  of  their  sturdy  common  sense.  They 
reminded  him  how  he  had  wandered  as  an  outlaw 


206  The  Story  of  Sweden 

in  the  woods,  how  they  helped  him  to  drive  his 
enemies  out  of  the  land,  how  they  had  seated  him 
on  the  throne,  whereupon  he  "had  made  light 
of  good  Swedish  men,  and  bidden  Germans  and 
Danes  come  into  the  country."  Contrary  to  his 
royal  oath  he  had  levied  unchristian  taxes  on 
churches  and  monasteries,  and  taken  out  of  them 
chalices  and  treasures  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
God.  They  had  ere  now  humbly  begged  him  "to 
get  for  them  a  better  value  for  their  goods,  but 
the  longer  they  waited  the  worse  it  grew,  and 
they  would  no  longer  stand  this."  If  King  Gustaf 
would  not  listen  to  their  complaints  they  would 
no  longer  keep  their  oath  of  allegiance  to  him. 
"We  see  that  you  mean  wholly  to  destroy  us 
poor  Swedish  men,  which  with  God's  help  we  will 
prevent — take  note  hereof  and  act  accordingly." 
Gustaf  wrote  back  that  he  could  not  believe  they 
seriously  meant  to  break  their  allegiance,  and 
warned  them  not  to  go  too  far.  At  the  same  time 
he  offered  his  abdication  to  a  national  assembly 
at  Vesteras,  if  they  were  not  satisfied  with  his 
rule,  and  the  assembly  had  almost  to  go  down  on 
their  knees  to  persuade  him  to  stay.  When  he 
visited  Dalecarlia  in  the  autumn,  1525,  his  old 
comrades  in  war  begged  to  be  forgiven,  as  they 
had  been  misled.  The  second  revolt  of  Dalecarlia 
broke  out  in  1527,  mainly  because  the  King 
favoured  Lutheranism.  It  is  true  he  had  been 
democratic  enough  to  consult  them  even  on  affairs 
of  state  before  he  discussed  them  with  the  Council, 


Gustavus  Vasa  207 

but  the  failure  of  crops  must,  they  thought,  be 
caused  by  the  ungodliness  of  the  King.  An  im- 
postor claiming  to  be  a  son  of  Sten  Sture  led  them. 
They  complained  that  the  King  had  become  "a 
Lutheran  and  a  heathen."  Gustaf  wrote  back 
that  he  had  only  commanded  that  God's  word 
and  Gospel  were  to  be  preached  so  that  the  priests 
should  no  longer  deceive  the  simple  folk ;  they  did 
not  wish  their  deception  to  be  known,  and  had 
therefore  spread  the  false  report  that  he  wished 
to  introduce  a  new  faith,  "Luthery";  he  was 
astonished  that  the  good  Dalecarlians  should 
trouble  themselves  about  matters  which  they  did 
not  understand  at  all,  and  which  did  not  concern 
them.  The  Dalecarlians  in  their  reply  demanded 
that  no  new  faith  or  Luthery  should  be  introduced, 
and  that  "at  Court  hereafter  there  should  not  be 
so  many  foreign  and  outlandish  customs  with 
laced  and  brocaded  clothes,"  and  that  "the  King 
should  burn  alive  or  otherwise  do  away  with  all 
who  ate  flesh  on  Friday  or  Saturday."  Gustaf 
at  last  got  impatient  and  wrote  he  was  not  going 
to  listen  to  lectures  by  them  "as  to  how  he  was  to 
clothe  his  bodyguard  and  servants;  he  preferred 
to  model  himself  upon  other  monarchs,  such  as 
kings  and  emperors,  that  they  may  see  that  we 
Swedes  are  no  more  swine  and  goats  than  they 
are."  At  an  interview  with  the  King,  represen- 
tatives of  the  Dalecarlians  became  convinced  of 
the  imposture  practised  upon  them  by  the  pre- 
tended son  of  Sten  Sture,  who  fled  to  Norway, 


208  The  Story  of  Sweden 

but  they  remained  stubborn  and  intractable. 
In  1528  Gustaf  entered  the  Dales  with  an  army, 
and  the  ringleaders  of  the  revolt  were  executed, 
in  spite  of  a  promise  of  safe  conduct,  in  the  midst 
of  an  assembly  of  all  the  Dales;  whereupon  the 
others  on  their  knees  begged  him  to  spare  their 
lives.  The  third  rebellion  of  the  Dales  took  place 
in  1 53 1.  To  pay  off  instalments  of  the  heavy 
debt  to  Lubeck,  it  was  enacted  that  every  parish 
church  was  to  surrender  a  bell,  or  if  it  had  but  one 
redeem  it  at  half  its  value.  The  Dalecarlians 
refused  to  part  with  their  bells,  and  wrote  the 
King  a  threatening  letter.  After  vainly  calling 
a  general  assembly  to  protest  against  the  King, 
they  offered  to  pay  two  thousand  marks  instead 
of  surrendering  their  bells.  The  King  accepted 
this,  as  he  was  threatened  by  an  invasion  from 
Norway  under  Christian  II.  The  danger  over, 
he  came  with  an  army  to  Dalecarlia,  and  on  their 
knees,  surrounded  by  men-at-arms,  the  Dalesmen 
listened  a  whole  day  to  the  angry  speech  of  the 
King.  He  would  no  longer  be  their  plaything. 
If  the  Dales  were  not  henceforth  obedient  to  him, 
he  would  lay  them  waste  so  that  from  that  day 
one  could  not  hear  a  dog  bark  or  a  cock  crow  in 
Dalecarlia.  The  leaders  were  executed,  and  this 
was  the  last  rising  of  the  Dalesmen,  who  even  sent 
two  thousand  men  to  assist  the  King  to  suppress 
the  Smaland  rebellion,  the  last  and  the  most 
dangerous  of  the  risings  during  his  reign.  It  was 
caused   by   the   harsh   proceedings   of   the   royal 


Gustavus  Vasa  209 

officers,  whose  task  it  was  to  confiscate  superfluous 
gold  and  silver  plate  and  other  treasures  in  the 
churches.  The  peasants  rose  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Nils  Dacke,  after  whom  it  is  called  the 
Dacke  War  (1542).  The  royal  troops  were  re- 
peatedly beaten  back,  Dacke  was  promised  help 
from  Germany,  but  was  defeated  and  killed  (1543). 
The  Swedish  Church  was  rich,  and  Gustaf 
desired  it  to  supply  his  pressing  financial  needs. 
All  the  bishoprics  but  two  were  vacant.  Arch- 
bishop Trolle  was  an  outlawed  exile,  and  two  bishops 
had  been  beheaded  in  the  Stockholm  Massacre. 
The  Papal  Legate,  Johannes  Magni,  sent  from 
Rome  by  Adrian  VI  "to  extirpate  the  Lutheran 
error,"  was  elected  Archbishop  of  Uppsala  by  the 
Chapter,  September,  1523.  The  Swedish  State 
Council  had  already  petitioned  the  Pope  for  another 
Primate,  and  Gustaf  now  wrote  him  to  ask  his 
confirmation  of  this  election  instead  of  "that  re- 
bellious and  bloodthirsty  traitor  Gustavus  Trolle." 
The  Pope  ordered  the  immediate  reinstatement  of 
Trolle.  Gustaf,  in  righteous  anger,  wrote  back 
that,  unless  the  election  of  Johannes  Magni  as 
Archbishop  were  confirmed  by  the  Holy  See,  he 
was  determined,  of  his  own  royal  authority,  here- 
after to  order  the  affairs  of  the  Church  in  his  king- 
dom to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  satisfaction  of  all 
Christian  men.  When  the  Pope  appointed  an 
Italian  to  the  See  of  Skara,  disregarding  the  choice 
of  Gustaf  and  the  Chapter,  the  King  wrote  that, 
if  the  Holy  See  refused  or  delayed  to  confirm  the 
14 


210  The  Story  of  Sweden 

election  of  his  bishops,  he  would  have  them  con- 
firmed by  the  one  and  only  Head  of  the  Church, 
Christ,  rather  than  allow  religion  in  Sweden  to 
suffer  by  the  negligence  of  the  Holy  See.  He 
refused  to  recognize  the  Pope's  foreign  bishop; 
His  Holiness  might  depend  upon  it  that  he  would 
never  allow  foreigners  to  be  bishops  in  Sweden. 
The  new  Pope,  Clement  VII,  continued  to  be 
obdurate. 

But  the  time  was  at  hand  when  Olavus  Petri, 
Olof  Petersson,  the  Swedish  reformer,  came  for- 
ward. Born  at  Orebro  (1493)  he  was  educated  in 
a  Carmelite  monastery,  studied  at  the  University 
of  Wittenberg  (15 16-19),  took  his  degree  as  Magis- 
ter  Artium  there,  and  became  a  fervent  disciple 
of  Luther,  whom  he  resembled  in  his  eloquence 
and  impulsiveness.  On  his  return  to  Sweden  he 
became  deacon  and  Secretary  to  the  Bishop  of 
Strangnas,  after  whose  death  he  was  teacher  at 
the  Cathedral  school  and  a  member  of  the  Chapter. 
There  he  won  a  friend  in  the  learned  Canon  Lau- 
rentius  Andrea?  (Lars  Andersson) ,  who  was  convert- 
ed to  the  new  faith  by  him,  and  who  all  his  life 
acted  as  a  break  on  the  ardent  temper  of  the  fifteen 
years  younger  Olavus,  in  the  way  that  Melanch- 
thon  acted  to  Luther.  During  the  National 
Assembly  at  Strangnas  (1523)  Gustaf  heard 
sermons  by  some  disciples  of  Olavus,  and  was  much 
impressed.  He  had  talks  with  Olavus,  who  boldly 
declared  that  the  Pope  was  Antichrist,  while 
Lauren tius  told  the  King  that  Luther  had  ' '  clipped 


Gustavus  Vasa  211 

the  wings  of  the  Pope,  the  Cardinals,  and  the 
Bishops."  Gustaf  was  more  pleased  than  sur- 
prised at  these  views,  and  with  his  clear  common 
sense  he  remarked  that  "God  sent  His  sheep  into 
the  world  to  be  pastured,  not  to  be  shaven  and 
shorn. ' '  The  wealth  of  the  Church  must  be  pressed 
into  the  service  of  the  country.  He  called  Lauren- 
tius  to  Stockholm  to  be  his  chancellor  or  private 
secretary,  and  Olavus  to  be  town  clerk  and 
preacher.  Olavus  denounced  Popery  and  Popish 
errors  so  violently  in  his  sermons  that  stones  and 
mud  were  thrown  at  him.  The  blame  was  laid  on 
him  for  the  excesses  of  the  Anabaptists,  who  at- 
tacked and  desecrated  the  Catholic  churches  of 
Stockholm.  The  peasants  threatened  to  come 
and  purge  that  corrupt  Gomorrha,  Stockholm, 
of  all  Lutherans  and  heretics.  Gustaf  expelled 
the  Anabaptists  from  Sweden.  Olavus 's  writings 
spread  like  wildfire,  written  as  they  were  in  strong, 
nervous  Swedish.  Bishop  Brask,  the  only  leader 
left  to  the  old  Church,  asked  the  King  to  suppress 
Luther's  writings,  but  the  King  refused  to  per- 
secute any  man  for  his  religious  convictions;  all 
new  doctrines  must  be  tested  by  Holy  Writ,  and 
subjected  to  full  and  free  discussion.  The  Bishop 
continued  to  attack  the  "Lutheran"  or  "Luci- 
feran"  heresy  in  pastorals,  but  with  little  effect. 
Olavus,  though  a  deacon,  married  in  1525; 
Bishop  Brask  denounced  him  to  the  King  for  this 
breach  of  celibacy.  Gustaf  replied  that  Olavus 
had,  before  the  King,  declared  himself  ready  to 


212  The  Story  of  Sweden 

defend  his  breach  of  celibacy  before  any  lawful 
court,  and  it  seemed  strange  to  him  (the  King) 
that  marriage,  which  the  law  of  God  had  never  for- 
bidden, should  cause  a  man  to  be  excommunicated, 
while  the  immorality  of  the  priests  was  not  pun- 
ished by  the  Pope.  It  was  true  he  (the  King) 
had  used  the  property  of  the  Church  for  the  good 
of  the  State,  but  he  had  been  driven  to  do  this  by 
necessity.  A  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
into  Swedish,  mainly  from  the  pen  of  Olavus, 
was  published  in  1526.  The  King  now  openly 
sided  with  the  Reformers,  and  declared  he  would 
not  desert  the  new  faith  "as  long  as  his  heart 
was  whole  and  his  blood  was  warm."  He  com- 
plained that  there  were  too  many  unnecessary 
priests,  and  that  the  monasteries  were  filled  with 
monks  who  were  little  better  than  vermin,  since 
they  consumed  all  the  kindly  fruits  of  earth, 
the  people's  heritage.  In  1526  he  began  to  sup- 
press and  sequestrate  the  monasteries;  even  the 
weak  and  pliable  Archbishop  could  no  longer 
serve  him;  he  was  accused  of  high  treason,  and 
was  glad  to  get  out  of  the  reach  of  danger  when 
he  was  sent  with  an  embassy  to  Poland.  As  soon 
as  he  landed  he  wrote  to  Bishop  Brask  asking 
him  to  take  charge  of  the  archbishopric.  He 
never  saw  his  native  land  again. 

Still  more  high-handed  was  the  King's  treat- 
ment of  two  prelates,  Petrus  Jacobi  and  Master 
Knut.  He  deposed  them  for  disobedience  to  his 
commands;  after  fomenting  rebellion  in  Dalecar- 


Gustavus  Vasa  213 

Ha,  they  sought  safety  in  Norway,  under  the 
protection  of  the  last  Catholic  Archbishop  of 
Trondhjem,  Olaf  Engelbrektsson.  After  long 
negotiations  they  were  extradited  and  paraded 
through  the  streets  of  Stockholm,  seated  back- 
wards on  broken-down  hacks,  Jacobi  with  a  crown 
of  straw  on  his  head,  Knut  with  a  mitre  made 
of  rushes,  mocking  jesters  running  beside  them, 
shouting  to  the  crowd  that  here  sat  the  men  who 
would  rather  be  traitors  than  approve  the  teach^ 
ing  of  Luther.  The  King  prosecuted  them  for 
treason,  and  they  were  sentenced  to  be  hanged, 
though  four  of  the  judges  withdrew  from  the  court 
as  being  illegal.  In  1526  two  thirds  of  the  tithes 
were  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  national  debt. 
Old  Bishop  Brask  had  to  stand  up  against  the 
King  almost  single-handed.  In  despair  he  wrote: 
"  The  King's  heart  is  in  the  hands  of  God,  who 
can  always  make  Saul  Paul."  Backed  by  the 
peasantry  he  dared  to  resist.  The  King  ordered 
him  to  destroy  his  printing  press,  from  which 
many  Anti-Lutheran  pamphlets  issued.  Brask 
then  moved  his  press  to  Copenhagen,  whereupon 
the  King  forbade  him  to  print  and  circulate  among 
the  common  people  anything  not  previously  sub- 
mitted to  himself.  Gustaf  determined  to  make 
an  end  of  the  religious  disorder  in  his  realm,  and 
summoned  an  assembly  of  all  classes,  burgesses 
and  commons,  priests  and  nobles,  in  the  hall  of  the 
Black  Friars  Monastery  at  Vesteras,  in  the  middle 
of  June,    1527.     The  bishops  previously  held   a 


214  The  Story  of  Sweden 

secret  meeting  in  a  locked  church,  and  bound 
themselves  by  oath  to  protest  against  any  resolu- 
tions against  the  Pope  and  for  Luther.  This 
secret  league  of  protest  was  unknown  till  the  writ- 
ten protest  was  found  under  the  floor  of  the 
church  in  1542.  The  Chancellor  first  read  to  the 
assembly  the  King's  account  of  the  state  of  Sweden ; 
he  reminded  them  how  he  had  worked  and  suffered 
for  his  country,  he  assured  them  he  had  never 
wanted  to  introduce  a  new  faith,  but  only  to  have 
the  pure  Word  of  God  preached  and  to  cleanse 
the  priests  of  their  worldliness.  No  government 
was  possible  in  Sweden  unless  the  revenues  of  the 
Crown  were  increased,  he  urged.  Brask  was  the 
first  to  answer,  and  declared  that  the  Church  was 
subject  to  the  Holy  See  in  spiritual  matters,  and 
could  not  without  its  permission  alter  any  doctrine 
or  surrender  any  property.  The  Council  and 
the  nobles  assented  to  this.  Gustaf  then  burst 
into  an  angry  speech  full  of  reproaches  against 
his  people  for  their  ingratitude.  ' '  I  have  no  desire 
to  be  your  king  on  such  conditions.  I  am  not 
surprised  that  the  common  people  are  maddened 
and  disobedient;  they  take  after  such  as  you. 
When  they  lack  rain  and  sunshine,  they  blame 
me  for  it ;  dearth,  famine,  pestilence,  I  am  blamed 
for  it  all.  For  all  my  trouble  my  sole  reward  is 
that  you  would  like  to  see  an  axe  sticking  in  my 
head,  though  none  of  you  dare  hold  its  handle. 
And  though  I  am  your  lord  and  king  all  of  you 
want  to  be  my  masters  and  judges.     Who  would 


Gustavus  Vasa  215 

be  your  king  under  such  conditions?  Not  the 
worst  off  in  hell — still  less  any  human  being.  I 
tell  you  straight  I  will  not  be  your  king  any 
longer;  you  may  choose  any  good  man  you  like 
in  my  place.  Therefore,  be  ready  to  pay  me  back 
what  I  have  spent  of  my  own  upon  the  kingdom; 
I  will  then  take  my  departure,  and  never  come 
back  to  my  ungrateful  fatherland."  Whereupon 
the  King  burst  into  tears  and  rushed  out  of.  the 
hall  to  the  castle.  The  Estates  were  thrown  into 
utter  confusion  and  dismay.  The  first  day  they 
adjourned  without  a  result ;  the  second  day  of  the 
debate  the  Bishop  of  Strangnas  declared  that, 
whatever  might  be  the  fate  of  the  Church,  King 
Gustaf  was  indispensable  to  the  kingdom.  The 
third  day  the  Estate  of  Peasants  compelled  Olavus 
and  Laurentius  Petri  to  go  up  to  the  castle  to 
implore  the  King  to  come  back.  The  burgesses 
and  peasants  clamoured  for  him.  Even  the  nobles 
exhorted  the  Council  and  the  Bishops  to  concede 
his  demands.  Deputation  after  deputation  was 
sent  by  the  Estates  to  the  castle,  imploring  the 
King  to  come  back.  For  four  days  he  was  im- 
movable; he  wanted  to  make  them  realize  to  the 
full  how  indispensable  he  was.  On  the  fourth 
day — June  24,  1527 — he  returned,  and  all  his 
demands  were  granted  by  the  Estates,  and  "they 
nearly  kissed  his  feet,  in  tears,"  says  the  Chronicle. 
The  Vesteras  Recess  contained  three  main  points : 
(1)  The  Bishops'  castles  and  the  surplus  revenues 
of  the  Bishops,  the  Cathedral  chapters,  and  the 


216  The  Story  of  Sweden 

monasteries  should  be  transferred  to  the  Crown 
to  provide  for  its  needs;  (2)  the  nobles  should 
recover  from  the  Church  all  lands  given  and 
granted  since  1454,  once  held  by  themselves 
— hereby  Gustaf  won  the  support  of  the  nobles 
for  the  reformation;  (3)  the  Word  of  God 
shall  be  preached,  pure  and  plain,  all  over 
the  kingdom.  In  addition  to  the  Recess  the 
Vesteras  Ordinance  defined  the  relations  of  the 
Church  and  State.  The  King  became  the  su- 
preme head  of  the  Church  instead  of  the  Pope; 
Bishops-elect  were  not  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
See  of  Rome;  Peter's  pence  was  to  go  to  the  Crown 
instead  of  to  Rome,  and  all  clergymen  were  to  be 
amenable  to  the  civil  courts  only,  in  temporal 
matters.  The  Episcopal  castles  were  immediately 
seized.  The  last  leader  of  Catholicism,  Bishop 
Brask,  went  into  exile  and  died  (1539)  in  a  Polish 
monastery.  The  new  Bishops  were  consecrated 
by  Per  Mansson,  Bishop  of  Vesteras,  who  had 
himself  been  consecrated  at  Rome.  Thus  the 
apostolic  succession  was  preserved,  while  it  was 
lost  in  Denmark,  though  Per  Mansson  acted 
against  his  own  convictions  at  the  bidding  of  the 
King  in  January,  1528.  All  the  Bishops  were 
present  at  the  King's  coronation  at  Uppsala  (1528), 
but  they  ceased  to  be  members  of  the  State  Coun- 
cil. In  1529  the  Synod  of  Orebro  declared  Holy 
Scripture  to  be  the  sole  norm  of  doctrine,  and 
regulated  Church  ceremonies  and  discipline.  The 
reformation  won  its  way  gradually.     The  monas- 


Gustavus  Vasa  217 

teries  were  deserted  or  converted  into  hospitals. 
Olavus  wrote  and  published  a  Catechism,  a  Prayer 
Book,  and  a  Book  of  Psalms  in  Swedish,  and  a 
Swedish  Missal  was  published  authorizing  Com- 
munion in  both  kinds.  In  1531  Gustaf  had  a 
new  evangelical  Lutheran  Archbishop  elected  by 
the  Bishops,  Laurentius  Petri,  Rector  of  the 
School  of  Uppsala,  a  brother  of  Olavus.  This 
gentle  reformer  was  more  liked  by  the  King  than 
his  fiery  and  outspoken  brother.  In  1539-41 
Gustaf  sent  "Visitors"  round  Sweden  to  seques- 
trate the  movable  property  of  the  Church;  the 
holy  vessels  and  vestments  were  plundered,  and. 
the  peasants  were  goaded  into  rebellion;  even  the 
Lutheran  Bishops  protested  against  these  viola- 
tions of  the  Vesteras  Recess.  Gustaf  took  no 
heed;  he  had  saved  Sweden  and  had  the  right  to 
rule  it  as  he  liked.  He  favoured  foreigners,  espe- 
cially the  German  adventurers,  Conrad  van  Pyhy 
and  Georg  Norman.  Norman  became  Super- 
intendent of  the  Church  with  jurisdiction  over 
the  Bishops,  Pyhy  Chancellor.  The  two  reform- 
ers were  too  independent  for  the  King.  He  took 
offence  at  the  sermons  of  Olavus;  certain  expres- 
sions about  swearing  and  blasphemy  he  resented 
as  allusions  to  his  personal  habits.  He  became 
still  more  angry  when  it  was  reported  that  Olavus 
had  called  him  a  tyrant,  and  explained  an  eclipse 
of  the  sun  as  presaging  calamities  which  the  King's 
sins  would  bring  upon  the  country.  Olavus  and 
Laurentius   Andreae   were   both   accused  of  high 


218  The  Story  of  Sweden 

treason  at  the  assembly  of  Orebro,  before  a  court 
mainly  composed  of  foreigners.  The  principal 
charge  against  them  was  that  of  keeping  to  them- 
selves the  knowledge  of  a  conspiracy  against  the 
King's  life,  because  they  acquired  it  in  the  con- 
fessional. Both  the  reformers  were  sentenced  to 
death  on  this  trumpery  charge,  January,  1540, 
but  the  sentences  were  commuted  to  huge  fines. 
Olavus  regained  the  King's  favour  and  died  as  a 
clergyman  in  Stockholm  (1552),  the  same  year  as 
his  fellow-reformer. 

When  the  last  peasant  rebellion  had  been  put 
down  Gustaf  summoned  an  assembly  of  the 
Estates  at  Vesteras,  1544.  To  show  their  grati- 
tude to  the  liberator  the  Estates  declared  the 
crown  of  Sweden  hereditary  in  the  family  of 
Gustaf  I  and  of  his  male  descendants.  The 
Estates  also  abolished  the  remaining  Catholic 
ceremonies  and  completed  the  establishment  of 
the  Lutheran  Church.  The  Bishops  were  to  be 
called  superintendents  and  to  be  appointed  by 
the  Crown,  without  an  election  by  a  chapter  as 
had  been  customary. 

Gustaf  had  now  accomplished  three  things, 
epoch-making  in  Swedish  history.  He  had  freed 
his  country  from  the  Danish  yoke.  Though 
forcing  the  reformation  upon  an  unwilling  people, 
he  had  cleansed  religion  of  many  abuses  and  made 
use  of  the  wealth  of  the  Church  for  the  good 
of  the  entire  nation.  By  making  the  Crown 
hereditary  in  his  family  he  had  founded  a  central 


Gustavus  Vasa  219 

power  strong  enough  to  keep  peace  and  order  in 
Sweden. .  The  Vasa  family  was  no  longer  merely 
one  of  the  noble  families  of  the  kingdom. 

He  confiscated  most  of  the  glebes  and  Church 
lands,  so  that  at  the  end  of  his  reign  more  than 
twelve  thousand  of  these  had  come  under  the 
Crown.  The  largest  part  of  the  rent  and  income 
of  these  he  used  to  establish  the  first  Swedish 
standing  army,  fifteen  thousand  well-equipped 
men,  and  the  first  Swedish  navy,  twenty-five 
large  men-of-war.  He  saved  money,  so  that  he 
left  behind  as  his  private  property  no  less  than 
a  sum  equal  to  £1,200,000  in  our  times,  in  ready 
money  and  in  silver,  unusual  at  that  time,  and 
more  than  two  thousand  farms,  since  called  the 
"Gustavian  Estates."  He  scrutinized  closely  the 
accounts  of  the  royal  bailiffs.  He  taught  his 
people  agriculture,  mining,  and  trade,  being  an 
agriculturist,  miner,  and  trader  himself  on  a 
larger  scale  than  any  one  else.  On  his  own  model 
farms  he  personally  instructed  the  peasantry,  by 
word  of  mouth  and  in  writing,  how  to  till  their 
fields  and  drain  them.  Slothful  farmers  were 
punished,  and  of  neglected  farms  he  declared: 
"Then  they  belong  to  us  and  to  Sweden!"  Ger- 
man miners  and  blacksmiths  were  called  in  to 
teach.  He  was  himself  the  largest  merchant  in 
Sweden,  and  his  ships  were  instructed  to  trade 
in  England,  France,  and  Portugal.  He  was  indeed 
a  sort  of  general  providence  for  all  his  subjects, 
and  he  stamped  his  people  with  the  stamp  of  his 


220  The  Story  of  Sweden 

mighty  personality,  his  restless  and  passionate 
energy.  He  governed  all  Sweden  as  if  it  were 
his  own  private  estate. 

The  schools  were  in  sorry  state,  for  Protestants 
with  little  learning  had  superseded  the  Catholic 
priests  and  teachers.  Still,  Olavus  Petri  laid 
the  foundation  of  Swedish  literature.  He  was 
not  only  the  chief  translator  of  the  Swedish  Bible, 
but  he  wrote  the  first  history  of  Sweden  in  Swedish 
(a  rhymed  chronicle)  and  the  first  play  in  Swedish. 

Gustaf  had  allied  himself  with  Denmark  in  the 
Count's  war  to  throw  off  the  commercial  yoke  of 
Liibeck.  In  1537  a  truce  was  concluded.  Lu- 
beck's  trade  monopoly  in  Sweden  was  limited  to 
four  ports  where  she  was  to  trade  free  of  duties, 
and  she  renounced  her  claims  for  arrears  of  debt. 
Fearing  the  hegemony  of  Charles  V,  Gustaf  made 
an  alliance  with  Denmark  in  1541  and  with  France 
in  1542.  But  nevertheless  the  old  suspicion  and 
hatred  of  Denmark  burnt  with  a  steady  flame  in 
his  heart,  and  he  gave  vent  to  it  on  every  occasion. 
A  few  months  before  his  death  he  wrote  to  his 
son  Erik,  the  heir  to  the  throne:  "We  have  now 
for  nearly  forty  years  learnt  to  know  the  Danes. 
.  .  .  Almighty  God  knows  how  faithfully  and 
sedulously  we  have  through  all  our  days  warned 
and  advised  both  old  and  young  against  the  false- 
ness and  deception  of  the  Danes."  Among  various 
complaints  and  grievances  on  both  sides  was  the 
question  of  the  three  crowns.  When  the  Swedish 
Crown  was  made  hereditary  in  the  family  of  Gustaf 


Gustavus  Vasa  221 

in  1544,  Christian  III  of  Denmark  retaliated  by- 
quartering  on  his  shield  the  three  crowns  of 
Sweden.  They  were  the  arms  of  Sweden  since 
the  time  of  Magnus  Eriksson.  King  Albrecht 
had  three  golden  crowns  in  blue,  so  that  blue  and 
yellow  in  time  became  the  national  colours,  used 
the  first  time  as  the  flag  of  the  royal  navy  under 
Gustaf  I.  To  the  Swedes  the  three  crowns  were 
the  symbol  of  the  Scandinavian  Union,  the  re- 
newal of  the  Union  under  Danish  supremacy.  As 
a  demonstration  Christian  III  flaunted  the  Danish, 
Norwegian,  and  Swedish  arms  on  the  occasion  of 
his  daughter's  marriage  to  Duke  Augustus  of 
Saxony.  Gustaf  complained  in  a  letter  to  Chris- 
tian III,  and  reminded  him  what  he  owed  to  his 
assistance  in  the  civil  war.  Christian  III  wrote 
back  that  the  three  crowns  meant,  not  Sweden, 
but  the  three  kingdoms  and  their  quartering  on 
his  shield  was  only  a  reminiscence  of  the  Union. 
Gustaf  called  this  a  dishonest  explanation,  but 
peace  was  unbroken  till  the  death  of  the  two 
old  kings.  In  1556-57  the  young  Tsar  of  Russia, 
Ivan  IV  Vassilievitch,  carried  fire  and  sword  into 
Finland,  and  in  1557  a  truce  of  forty  years  was 
concluded  at  Moscow,  the  frontiers  to  be  regulated 
according  to  the  treaty  of  1323. 

In  1560  Gustaf  felt  that  his  powers  were  failing. 
He  therefore  summoned  the  Estates  to  assemble 
in  Stockholm  to  hear  his  account  of  his  steward- 
ship, his  incessant  and  anxious  labour  for  the  good 
of  the  people  for  thirty-seven  years,  to  bid  them  a 


222  The  Story  of  Sweden 

solemn  good-bye  and  to  set  forth  his  last  wishes. 
Surrounded  by  his  sons,  Erik,  the  heir  to  the  throne 
and  the  three  Dukes,  John,  Magnus,  and  Charles, 
he  stood  in  the  great  audience  hall  of  the  palace 
on  June  26,  1560.  The  father  of  the  Swedish 
people  spoke  his  last  word  to  his  children.  He 
thanked  them  for  coming  at  his  call.  He  passed 
in  review  his  long  reign  of  thirty-seven  years. 
He  told  them  of  their  sufferings  at  the  hands  of 
the  Danes,  and  their  deliverance  from  Christian 
the  tyrant,  whom  God  alone  had  thrown  down 
and  punished.  God  used  him  as  an  instrument 
for  His  divine  help.  "What  indeed  was  I  that 
I  could  think  of  driving  out  so  mighty  a  monarch, 
who  was  not  only  the  ruler  of  three  kingdoms, 
but  the  friend  of  the  powerful  Emperor  Charles 
V.  .  .  .  But  God  did  the  work,  and  made  me 
His  miracle-worker  through  whom  His  almighty 
power  should  be  made  manifest  against  King 
Christian,  as  also  these  forty  years.  God  gave 
David  victory  over  Goliath,  and  made  him  king. 
Thus  He  did  with  me,  unworthy  as  I  am."  Never 
a  thought  of  this  could  he  have  had  as  possible 
when  forty  years  ago  he  stole,  hiding  from  the 
bloodthirsty  swords  of  the  enemy,  through  forests 
and  mountain  wastes.  He  begged  his  beloved, 
kind  Swedish  men  to  forgive  him  whatever  faults 
and  shortcomings  his  rule  might  have  had,  for 
they  had  not  arisen  from  malice  but  from  human 
weakness.  He  knew  that  in  the  thoughts  of 
many  he  had  been  a  hard,  severe  king,  but  the 


Gustavus  Vasa  223 

time  might  come  when  they  would  be  fain  and 
glad  to  tear  him  with  their  nails  out  of  the  earth, 
if  they  only  could.     "My  time  is  soon   up.     I 
have  no  need  of  starcraft  or  other  prophecy  thereof. 
I  know  the  signs  in  my  own  body  that  I  shall 
soon   depart."     Then   the   Estates  approved  his 
will;  he  exhorted  them  to  be  obedient  to  his  sons 
and  live  together  in  peace  and  unity.      Finally 
he  commended  them  to  God  and  gave  them  his 
blessing;   the   tears  rushed  from   the   old   man's 
eyes  as  he  walked  out;  the  Estates  were  equally 
moved.     His   forebodings   were   right.     He   died 
on  September  29,  1560,  and  was  buried  in  Upp- 
sala Cathedral.     He  is  described  by  a  contem- 
porary, his  nephew,  as  well-proportioned,  strongly 
built,  of  middle  height,  with  handsome  features, 
keen  blue  eyes,  hair  the  colour  of  yellow  silk,  a 
long,  flowing,  wavy  beard,  a  ruddy  complexion, 
small  but  wiry  hands  and  feet,  "a  body  as  fitly 
proportioned  as  any  painter  could  have  painted. 
He   was   of   a   sanguine,    choleric   temperament; 
when  untroubled  and  un vexed,  bright  and  cheer- 
ful and  easy  to  talk  to,  and  however  many  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  same  room  with  him,  he  was 
never  at  a  loss  for  an  answer  to  every  one  of  them." 
He  was  fond  of  singing  and  music  and  simple 
pleasures.     He   sang   and   played   himself,    espe- 
cially on  the  lute,  when  sitting  alone  of  an  evening. 
His  memory  was  extraordinary ;  he  could  remember 
persons  and  things  which  he  had  only  once  seen 
and  heard  after  ten  or  twenty  years.     With  his 


224  The  Story  of  Sweden 

clear  common  sense,  his  marvellous  capacity  for 
taking  pains,  hampered  by  no  learning,  he  saw 
through  things.  He  had  his  faults;  he  could  be 
irritable,  violent,  hard  to  his  enemies,  and  mor- 
bidly suspicious.  He  was  first  married  to  Cathe- 
rine of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  by  whom  he  had  one  son 
Eric,  born  1533,  the  unhappy  fruit  of  an  unhappy 
marriage.  Then  he  married  Margaret,  Erik's 
daughter,  Leijonhufvud,  who  bore  him  ten  child- 
ren. Three  sons,  Duke  John  of  Finland,  Duke 
Magnus  of  Ostergotland,  and  Duke  Charles  of 
Sodermanland,  survived  from  childhood,  while  his 
five  daughters  were  married  to  German  princes. 
In  his  old  age  he  married  a  third  time,  Catherine, 
Gustaf's  daughter,  Stenbock;  she  was  then  only 
sixteen,  and  survived  her  husband  more  than 
sixty  years. 

He  laid  the  foundations  of  the  future  greatness 
of  Sweden.  "God's  miracle- worker  who  built 
up  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  from  basement  to  roof 
and  gave  his  people  a  Protestant  fatherland  against 
their  will,"  he  has  been  called  by  a  Swedish  poet. 
He  was  the  master  builder  of  the  Swedish  nation 
in  all  essentials,  as  well  as  in  many  details  and 
particulars. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


ERIC  XIV 


Eric  XIV  (1560-68)  was  twenty-seven  years  old  at 
his  father's  death.  Like  all  the  sons  of  Gustaf  I, 
he  was  well  educated  and  trained,  mentally  and 
bodily.  The  French  Ambassador  Dancay  de- 
scribes him  as  a  very  handsome,  well-built  prince, 
marvellously  accomplished,  speaking  French, 
German,  and  Latin  like  his  mother-tongue,  ex- 
cellent in  drawing,  singing,  violin  playing,  and 
mathematics.  But  these  fine  qualities  were  viti- 
ated by  vanity,  licentiousness,  cowardice,  cruelty, 
and  a  morbid  suspicion  bordering  on  insanity. 
He  was  about  to  embark  for  England  personally 
to  press  his  suit  for  the  hand  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
which  went  on  for  years,  when  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Gustaf  I  reached  him.  He  hurried  back 
for  his  father's  funeral,  and  subsequently  at  an 
assembly  of  the  Estates  at  Arboga,  1561,  got  their 
assent  to  the  so-called  Arboga  articles  which 
strictly  limited  the  powers  of  the  three  royal 
dukes  in  their  duchies,  with  their  own  consent. 
Thereupon  his  coronation  took  place  at  Uppsala, 
with  a  pomp  and  splendour  never  seen  before  in 
*s  225 


226  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Sweden;  it  made  an  inroad  upon  the  saved-up 
hoard  of  his  father.  At  his  coronation  he  intro- 
duced the  titles  of  Count  and  Baron  to  heighten 
the  splendour  of  his  Court.  His  nearest  kinsmen 
among  the  nobility,  Svante  Sture,  Per  Brahe,  and 
Gustaf  Johansson,  were  created  counts.  They 
received  fiefs  corresponding  to  their  dignity.  Eric 
continued  his  suit  for  the  hand  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. His  agents  in  England,  it  is  said,  tried  to 
poison  or  assassinate  his  successful  rival,  the  Earl 
of  Leicester.  At  the  same  time  he  was  suing  for 
the  hand  of  Mary  Stuart.  Then  he  tried  his  luck 
with  Renata  of  Lorraine,  the  granddaughter  of 
Christian  II  and  heir  to  his  claims  on  Denmark 
and  Norway;  he  wrote  by  turns  to  her  and  to 
Christina  of  Hesse.  The  ambitious  Eric  seized 
the  first  opportunity  for  conquest.  The  Order 
of  the  Teutonic  Knights  had  lost  its  hold  upon 
Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  Courland,  and  the  neigh- 
bouring states,  Russia,  Poland,  Denmark,  and 
Sweden,  all  tried  to  seize  a  piece  of  this  territory. 
Russian  hordes  under  Tsar  Ivan  IV  poured  into 
the  unhappy  country,  which  sought  protection 
from  Poland,  Denmark,  and  Sweden.  The  island 
Osel  was  taken  under  the  protection  of  Denmark. 
The  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Knights,  von  Kettler, 
put  himself  under  the  protection  of  Poland,  and 
became  the  first  duke  of  a  Polish  fief.  But  the 
old  Hansa  town  of  Reval,  being  strongly  Protestant, 
feared  the  union  with  Catholic  Poland  and  turned 
to   King   Eric.     Klas   Kristersson   Horn,   equally 


Eric  XIV  227 

eminent  as  admiral  and  statesman,  persuaded  the 
city  of  Reval  and  the  nobles  of  North  Esthonia 
to  take  the  oath  of  fealty  to  Eric  (1561),  and  to 
drive  out  the  Poles.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a 
century  of  Swedo-Polish  wars  and  of  Sweden's 
Baltic  Empire.  Sigismund  I,  the  King  of  Poland, 
set  about  making  Livonia  a  Polish  province,  and 
in  order  to  win  over  Duke  John  of  Finland,  Eric's 
brother,  he  offered  him  in  marriage  his  sister, 
Catherine  Jagellonica.  Eric  forbade  his  brother 
the  marriage,  and,  as  Sweden  and  Poland  were 
at  war  in  Livonia,  he  wished  to  enforce  the  pro- 
hibition. In  spite  of  this,  John  was  married  at 
Wilna,  October,  1562,  and  lent  his  brother-in-law 
a  sum  of  money,  receiving  in  return  seven  fortified 
castles  in  Livonia  as  security.  This  was  a  breach 
of  the  Arboga  articles.  Eric  suspected  the  Duke 
of  open  rebellion,  and  summoned  him  to  appear 
within  three  weeks  in  Sweden  to  answer  a  charge 
of  high  treason.  As  he  did  not  appear,  the  Estates 
assembled  at  Stockholm  sentenced  him  to  lose 
his  life  and  goods  for  treason  to  the  Crown.  A 
Swedish  army  was  sent  to  Finland,  and  after  a 
month's  siege  of  Abo  Castle,  Duke  John  sur- 
rendered (1563).  He  was  not  executed,  but  taken 
to  Gripsholm  Castle  with  his  consort,  and  both 
were  prisoners  of  state  for  nearly  four  years,  while 
many  of  their  adherents  were  beheaded.  About 
the  same  time  Duke  Magnus  became  insane,  and, 
as  Duke  Charles  was  not  yet  of  age,  all  the  three 
duchies  were  now  in  the  hands  of  the  King.     Eric 


228  The  Story  of  Sweden 

had,  from  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  a  favourite, 
Goran  Persson,  his  secretary,  in  whom  he  had 
absolute  confidence.  A  pupil  of  Melanchthon 
Goran  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  priest;  with 
his  unquestioned  ability,  his  cruelty,  and  cunning, 
he  influenced  his  master  against  the  nobility.  At 
his  suggestion  a  High  Court,  the  King's  Court, 
was  established,  representing  the  Crown,  in  which 
Goran  acted  as  public  prosecutor,  so  that  it  be- 
came a  kind  of  Star  Chamber  by  which  noblemen 
were  heavily  fined  or  sentenced  to  death  for 
political  offences.  It  was  an  attempt  to  centralize 
the  government,  curtail  the  power  of  the  nobility, 
and  democratize  the  administrative  procedure. 
But  the  sinister  influence  of  Goran  nullified  the 
good  results  expected.  The  morbid  imagination 
of  Eric  was  aroused  and  his  suspicions  fell  on  the 
Sture  family,  which  had  so  often  saved  Sweden 
from  foreign  domination  and  stood  nearest  to 
the  throne,  after  the  Vasa  family.  Svante  Sture 
was  married  to  Marta  Leijonhufvud,  a  sister  of 
the  second  wife  of  Gustaf  I.  Their  son,  Nils 
Sture,  had  shown  himself  to  be  possessed  of  the 
great  gifts  of  his  family  as  diplomatist  and  soldier. 
Through  his  tutor,  Beurreus,  Eric  had  acquired 
a  taste  for  astrology;  he  read  in  the  stars  that  a 
light-haired  man  was  to  dethrone  himself,  and 
applied  it  to  Duke  John  and  to  Nils  Sture.  In 
1566  Nils  Sture  and  his  brother,  who  had  been 
killed  in  a  naval  battle  in  1565,  were  publicly 
proclaimed   traitors   and   knaves   in   the   central 


Eric  XIV  229 

square  of  Stockholm,  whereupon  Nils  was  sen- 
tenced to  death  by  the  King's  Court  for  charges 
of  neglect  of  duty  brought  against  him  by  Goran. 
But  this  was  commuted  to  a  degradation  worse 
than  death.  On  a  broken-down  hack,  with  a 
crown  of  straw  on  his  head,  Nils  Sture,  battered 
and  bruised,  was  led  in  a  mock  procession  through 
the  streets  of  Stockholm;  yet  a  few  days  later  he 
was  released  from  prison  and  sent  as  ambassador 
to  Lorraine  to  conclude  the  negotiations  for  Eric's 
marriage  with  Renata.  Eric  sent  him  word  that 
his  slight  and  "merciful"  punishment  was  due 
to  the  advice  of  wicked  men,  and  he  should  there- 
fore acknowledge  it  to  be  just  and  promise  not 
to  take  revenge  for  it.  Nils  would  give  no  such 
promise,  but  departed  on  his  embassy. 

For  seven  years  (1558-65)  Eric  had  been  writing 
love-letters  to  Queen  Elizabeth;  he  offered  to 
fight  his  successful  rival,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  in 
a  duel  on  French  or  Scottish  soil,  and  wrote  to 
his  ambassador  in  London  that  he  wanted  to  be 
rid  of  Leicester,  even  if  it  cost  ten  thousand  pounds. 
All  his  matrimonial  negotiations  with  various 
princesses  failed,  and  he  married  below  himself 
at  last.  He  fell  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  a 
corporal,  Karin  Man's  daughter.  She  came  to 
Court  as  his  mistress.  The  State  Council  granted 
his  request  that,  since  all  his  matrimonial  nego- 
tiations had  been  fruitless,  he  should  marry  any 
one  he  pleased — of  the  ladies  of  the  nobility.  He 
was  enraged  with  the  nobles  for  their  opposition 


230  The  Story  of  Sweden 

to   his    marriage    with    the    beautiful    Katarina 
(Catherine  Karin).1 

The  year  1567,  which  Eric  in  his  diary  called 
his  "unhappiest  year,"  began  inauspiciously.  In 
the  spring  he  was  at  Svartsjo  Castle,  the  victim 
of  a  deep  depression,  while  Goran  was  collecting 
proofs  of  a  conspiracy  of  the  nobles  against  him; 
they  consisted  of  vague  and  false  rumours.  Eric 
compelled  Count  Svante  Sture  and  Sten  Leijon- 
hufvud  to  declare  that  as  certain  persons  had 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  marriage  negotiations 
abroad,  in  order  to  extirpate  his  posterity,  it  was 
his  duty  to  marry  any  one  he  pleased,  noble  or 
non-noble,  and  they  promised  their  help  to  punish 
those  who  attempted  to  thwart  his  marriage.  An 
assembly  was  summoned  at  Uppsala  to  discuss 
the  matter.  The  leading  nobles  were  the  King's 
guests  at  Svartsjo,  on  their  way  to  Uppsala,  when 
they  were  arrested  and  brought  before  the  King's 
Court,  charged  with  treason.  They  were  taken 
to  Uppsala,  where  the  assembly,  consisting  almost 
solely  of  the  non-noble  classes,  was  opened  by 
Eric  in  a  speech  wholly  dealing  with  the  imaginary 
conspiracy  against  himself.  Nils  Sture  arrived 
with  the  ring  of  Renata  of  Lorraine,  who  con- 
sented to  marry  Eric,  but  was  thrown  into  prison 
by  Goran  before  he  saw  Eric.  The  next  day 
Eric  was  informed  of  the  result  of  the  mission, 
and  wrote  to  Count  Svante  Sture  that  he  dis- 

1  For  the  Seven  Years'  War,  1563-70,  between  Denmark  and 
Sweden,  see  Denmark. 


Eric  XIV  231 

believed  all  the  charges  against  him ;  next  morning 
he  visited  the  Count  in  his  prison,  and  on  his 
knees  begged  him  to  forgive  all  the  wrong  he  had 
done  him.  But  on  the  very  same  day  he  rushed 
into  Nils  Sture's  prison  in  Uppsala  Castle,  and 
with  the  words,  "There  thou  art,  traitor!"  thrust 
his  dagger  through  his  arm  and  a  spear  into  his 
breast,  while  his  men-at-arms  finished  him. 
Thereupon  he  rushed  away  into  the  countryside, 
and  cut  down  his  tutor,  Beurreus,  when  he  tried 
to  remonstrate  with  him.  He  sent  word  to  the 
castle  that  all  the  prisoners,  "Except  Herr  Sten 
(Mr.  Sten),"  should  be  put  to  death.  Half-drunk 
soldiers  foully  murdered  Count  Svante  Sture, 
his  son  Eric,  Abraham  Stenbock,  a  brother  of  the 
Queen  Dowager,  and  one  more  nobleman,  while 
the  lives  of  the  two  noblemen  called  Sten  were 
spared  since  it  was  uncertain  which  of  them  was 
"Herr  Sten."  Before  these  murders  were  known 
Goran  got  the  Estates  to  declare,  in  writing,  that 
the  accused  were  traitors  and  deserved  the  sen- 
tences already  passed  or  about  to  be  passed  on 
them.  Only  on  the  third  day  after  the  murders 
Eric  was  found  wandering  in  peasant's  dress 
about  the  country,  and  only  Karin  Man's  daughter 
succeeded  in  restoring  calm  to  his  troubled  mind. 
He  released  the  two  remaining  prisoners  and  tried 
to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  the  families  of  the 
murdered  men.  To  the  Countess  Sture,  whose 
husband  and  two  sons  he  had  assassinated,  he 
wrote  a  letter  saying  that  her  son  had  been  too 


232  The  Story  of  Sweden 

hurriedly  slain  and  that  he  was  highly  displeased 
that  the  slight  difference  between  them  should 
have  been  thus  handled,  but  she  demanded  that 
the  "venomous"  persons  who  inspired  the  crime 
should  be  punished.  Goran  was  tried  for  pecula- 
tion and  perjury  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  was 
merely  kept  in  prison.  Eric  now  released  his 
brother  John  from  prison.  The  Council  appointed 
a  regency,  for  Eric's  mental  derangement  was 
such  that  he  thought  his  brother  John  was  the 
King.  They  were  reconciled  on  condition  that 
John  recognized  the  legality  of  Eric's  marriage 
to  Karin  and  his  children  by  her  as  lawful  heirs 
to  the  Crown.  Eric  then  recovered.  Goran  was 
set  free  and  declared  innocent,  and  he  regained 
his  influence.  Eric  proclaimed  that  the  murdered 
noblemen  had  been  justly  sentenced  for  the  crime 
of  lese-majesty.  As  none  of  the  noblemen  were 
secure  of  their  lives,  the  King's  brothers,  John  and 
Charles,  now  headed  a  conspiracy  against  him. 
They  did  not  appear  at  Eric's  marriage  on  July 
4,  1568,  to  Karin,  or  at  her  coronation,  by  the 
Archbishop  Laurentius  Petri.  Her  son  was  pro- 
claimed heir  to  the  crown.  But  the  nobility  was 
ominously  absent.  Eric  ordered  a  general  thanks- 
giving for  his  delivery  from  the  assaults  of  the 
devil,  one  of  the  strangest  documents  ever  issued 
by  a  king.  He  was  at  first  victorious  against  the 
army  of  the  Dukes,  but  when  they  stood  before 
Stockholm,  the  King's  men  surrendered  to  them 
the   hated   Goran,   who   was   tortured   and   then 


Eric  XIV  233 

executed.  Thereupon  the  Dukes  entered  the 
city,  Eric  gave  himself  up  against  a  promise  of 
good  treatment  and  John  III  was  proclaimed 
King,  September  30,  1568.  In  January,  1569,  the 
Estates  formally  deposed  Eric  and  his  descend- 
ants; he  was  to  be  imprisoned  for  life,  yet  in  a 
princely  prison.  He  was  at  first  ill-treated  in 
prison.  His  wife  and  children  were  allowed  to 
share  his  prison  until  he  began  to  be  moved  about 
alone  from  prison  to  prison.  Three  conspiracies 
in  his  favour  were  discovered,  the  most  dangerous 
being  the  one  by  the  Scotch  mercenaries  under 
De  Mornay,  Archibald  Ruthwen,  and  Gilbert 
Balfour  in  1574;  they  were  executed  except  Ruth- 
wen,  who  died  in  prison.  King  John  was  to  be 
stabbed  during  a  Highland  sword  dance  at  the 
royal  palace.  King  John  got  the  State  Council 
to  declare  that  Eric  should  be  put  to  death  in  the 
case  of  a  new  rising  in  his  favour.  Eric  died 
suddenly  in  Orbyhus  prison,  February  24,  1577, 
probably  poisoned  by  the  new  governor  of  the 
prison  at  the  request  of  his  brother,  John  III. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  REFORMATION — POLAND 

John  III  (1568-92)  was  a  learned  theologian, 
deeply  read  in  patristic  literature.  His  queen  was 
a  Catholic,  and  he  desired  to  be  fair  to  Catholic- 
ism and  Protestantism  and  bring  Sweden  back 
to  the  primitive  Apostolic  Church  of  the  Fathers. 
At  synods  in  1574  and  1575  articles  tending  in 
this  direction,  drawn  up  by  him,  were  accepted, 
and  in  1576  he  issued  a  new  liturgy,  modelled  on 
the  Reformed  Roman  Missal  and  drawn  up  by 
himself  and  his  secretary,  the  so-called  Red  Book. 
The  Duke  of  Sodermanland  would  not  allow  it  to 
be  used  in  his  duchy,  but  in  spite  of  some  Pro- 
testant opposition  it  was  adopted  by  the  Estates 
in  1577.  The  Pope  struck  while  the  iron  was  hot. 
Two  Jesuits  from  Louvain  persuaded  John  to 
send  messengers  to  Rome  to  negotiate  for  reunion, 
but  he  laid  down  conditions — such  as  communion 
in  both  kinds,  a  married  clergy,  the  partial  use  of 
Swedish  in  the  liturgy — unacceptable  to  Rome. 
A  papal  legate,  Antonio  Possevino,  was  sent  to 
convert  the  King,  and  in  1578,  after  much  argu- 
ment, the  King  made  his  confession  to  him  and 

234 


The  Reformation — Poland        235 

received  absolution  and  communion  in  the  Roman 
manner.  A  Jesuit  catechism  was  substituted  for 
that  of  Luther  in  the  schools;  young  Swedes  were 
educated  in  Jesuit  seminaries  abroad;  Crown 
Prince  Sigismund  openly  avowed  himself  a  Roman 
Catholic;  but  the  Holy  See  rejected  John's  well- 
meant  attempts  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  Pro- 
testantism and  Catholicism.  His  attempts  to 
force  his  liturgy  on  the  Swedish  Church  were 
frustrated  by  his  brother  Charles  whose  duchy 
became  a  centre  of  the  opposition  against  the 
Romanization  of  Sweden.  After  the  death  of 
Queen  Catherine  in  1584  the  Romanist  tendencies 
abated,  but  relations  between  King  and  Duke 
grew  worse  until  they  came  near  breaking-point. 
They  were  reconciled  before  the  King's  death, 
being  united  in  their  struggle  with  the  aristocracy 
and  the  Council.  In  foreign  policy  John  tried  to 
play  Poland  and  Russia  off  against  each  other. 
After  the  peace  with  Denmark  in  1 570  the  Swedes 
carried  on  an  intermittent  and  unsuccessful  war  of 
conquest  against  Russia  in  Livonia  and  Esthonia, 
with  Reval  as  their  basis.  In  1578  John  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  Poland  against  Russia, 
and  the  allies  defeated  the  Russians  at  Venden 
(1578).  While  Stephen  Bathory,  King  of  Poland, 
invaded  Russia,  the  Swedes  recovered  the  lost 
parts  of  Esthonia  and  Livonia ;  Ingrio  and  Narva 
fell  into  their  hands.  In  1583  Ivan  the  Terrible 
made  a  truce  with  Sweden  which  was  to  retain 
all  her  conquests. 


236  The  Story  of  Sweden 

On  the  death  of  Stephen  Bathory,  December, 
1586,  eight  months  of  intrigue  by  the  candidates 
for  the  Polish  throne  followed.  Owing  to  Chan- 
cellor Zamoyski,  and  to  the  Polish  Queen  Dowager, 
a  sister  of  his  mother,  Sigismund,  the  heir  to  the 
Swedish  throne,  was  elected  King  of  Poland  on 
August  9,  1587.  In  September,  1587,  the  statute 
of  Kalmar  was  signed  by  the  two  kings,  father 
and  son,  before  Sigismund  sailed  for  Poland  with 
a  view  to  define  the  prospective  personal  union 
of  Sweden  and  Poland  under  Sigismund.  There 
was  to  be  full  equality  and  full  independence  in 
religion,  foreign  policy,  laws,  and  government, 
and  the  Pope  himself  was  declared  unable  to  re- 
lease Sigismund  from  any  provision  of  the  statute. 
When  Sigismund  was  in  Poland,  Sweden  was  to 
be  ruled  by  a  council  of  seven  members,  six  to 
be  nominated  by  Sigismund  and  one  by  Duke 
Charles.  On  Sigismund's  arrival  the  Poles  re- 
fused to  do  him  homage  before  Esthonia  was 
ceded  to  them,  but  finally  it  was  postponed  and 
Sigismund  was  crowned,  December,  1587.  John 
III  repented  and  spent  two  months  with  King 
Sigismund  at  Reval  in  1589,  trying  to  persuade 
him  to  abdicate  and  come  back  to  Sweden.  The 
Council  thwarted  his  plans.  He  died  1592,  re- 
conciled to  his  brother,  Duke  Charles,  through 
their  joint  struggle  against  the  power  of  the  nobles. 
During  his  reign  Finland  was  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  a  Grand  Duchy. 

Sigismund  I  (1592-99)  was  a  fervent  Catholic, 


The  Reformation — Poland        237 

educated  by  Jesuits  whose  dream  was  to  regain 
Sweden  for  the  Holy  See.  Duke  Charles  and  the 
Council  took  the  reins  of  government  and  sum- 
moned a  synod  at  Uppsala  to  formulate  the  na- 
tional confession  of  faith  of  Sweden  so  as  to  leave 
no  loopholes  (1593).  These  zealous  Lutherans 
elected  as  speaker  a  prelate  who  had  been  im- 
prisoned for  refusing  to  use  King  John's  liturgy. 
The  national  covenant  which  they  adopted  pro- 
vides that  Holy  Scripture  and  the  three  primitive 
Creeds  are  to  be  the  guides  of  Faith,  that  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  is  the  sole  right  interpreter  of 
Holy  Writ,  that  Luther's  Catechism  should  be  re- 
adopted,  and  King  John 's  liturgy  no  longer  used. 
Abraham  Angermannus,  of  the  extreme  Protest- 
ant party,  was  appointed  Archbishop.  The  Pro- 
testants next  tried  to  get  a  written  guarantee 
of  the  Uppsala  Covenant  from  Sigismund  and 
to  prevent  him  from  landing  in  Sweden  till  he 
had  satisfied  them.  They  kept  back  the  fleet, 
but  Sigismund  crossed  on  ships  provided  by 
the  Governor  of  Finland;  a  papal  legate,  De 
Malaspina,  Jesuits,  priests,  and  Polish  nobles  came 
with  him  (1593).  Guarantees  of  the  Uppsala 
Covenant  were  demanded  of  him  before  the 
coronation,  but  he  would  only  promise  to  give 
them  after  being  crowned.  A  bitter  struggle 
ensued  for  four  months  until  the  Estates  formed 
a  union  to  defend  the  Covenant,  and  Duke  Charles 
with  three  thousand  men-at-arms  sent  an  ulti- 
matum expiring  in   twenty-four  hours  to  Sigis- 


y 


238  The  Story  of  Sweden 

mund,  who  was  compelled  to  accept  all  their 
demands  and  recognize  the  heretical  Archbishop 
(February  16,  1594).  He  protested  secretly  to 
the  Jesuits  that  his  coronation  oath,  to  maintain 
the  Augsburg  Confession  in  Sweden,  was  extorted 
from  him  by  compulsion.  Catholics,  including 
Sigismund  himself,  had  to  worship  in  secret,  and 
sermons  were  preached  against  them  in  the 
churches.  Sweden  breathed  more  freely  when 
Sigismund  left  for  Poland,  August,  1594,  after  a 
ten  months'  stay.  Charles  now  ruled  Sweden 
in  all  but  name.  He  concluded  the  peace  of 
Teusin  (May  18,  1595)  with  Russia,  which  ceded 
all  her  rights  to  Esthonia  and  Narva  while  Sweden 
retroceded  the  Kexholm  district  in  Finland.  As 
Sigismund  refused  him  the  title  of  regent  he 
summoned  the  Estates  to  meet  at  Soderkoping 
(October,  1595)  to  fix  the  form  of  government 
during  the  King's  residence  in  Poland.  He  was 
appointed  regent  by  the  Estates  and  Council. 
All  Catholic  priests  were  to  be  expelled  from 
Sweden,  all  Catholic  laymen  to  be  disqualified  from 
office.  The  Duke  himself  expelled  the  Birgittine 
nuns  from  Vadstena  convent  and  confiscated 
their  property.  The  rabid  Protestant  Primate 
conducted  visitations,  in  the  course  of  which  men 
and  women  were  flogged  and  whipped  and  pun- 
ished for  clinging  to  the  old  customs.  The  scandal 
became  so  great  that  the  visitations  were  sus- 
pended. Charles  broke  with  the  Council  which 
refused  to  make  war  upon  the  Governor  of  Fin- 


The  Reformation — Poland        239 

land  who  remained  loyal  to  Sigismund.  Sigis- 
mund  now  authorized  the  Council  alone  to  govern 
and  inhibited  the  assembly  of  the  Estates  at  Ar- 
boga  (February,  1597).  In  the  absence  of  the 
Council  the  Peasant  King,  as  Charles  was  called, 
got  the  Estates  to  vest  the  government  in  himself 
and  confirmed  the  statutes  of  Soderkoping.  Mat- 
ters now  reached  a  state  of  open  war.  In  1597 
Charles  sailed  to  Finland  and  took  Abo.  In 
July,  1598,  Sigismund  landed  at  Kalmar  with 
an  army.  Cities  opened  their  gates  to  him  and 
many  nobles  flocked  to  his  standard.  Already 
the  Catholic  world  saw  in  spirit  a  new  armada 
issue  from  the  Catholic  North  to  conquer  England. 
Then  Sigismund  was  defeated  by  Charles  at 
Stangebro  (September  25,  1598).  By  the  armi- 
stice at  Linkoping  Sigismund  surrendered  the 
fugitive  members  of  the  Council  to  Charles  and 
agreed  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  Estates 
between  them.  He  broke  faith  as  before,  fled 
to  Poland,  and  declared  he  would  conquer  Sweden. 
Charles  saw  that  he  could  not  be  trusted.  In 
July,  1599,  Sigismdfcl  was  formally  deposed  by 
the  Estates  at  Stockholm  as  a  papist,  an  oath- 
breaker,  an  enemy  of  Sweden,  while  his  son  Vladis- 
lav was  to  retain  the  Crown,  if  he  were  sent  to 
Sweden  within  twelve  months,  to  be  educated  as 
a  Protestant.  As  no  answer  came  from  Poland 
the  Estates  assembled  at  Linkoping,  March,  1600, 
declared  that  Sigismund  and  his  descendants  had 
forfeited    the    Swedish    Crown.     Duke    Charles, 


240  The  Story  of  Sweden 

who  since  February,  1599,  had  worn  the  title 
"Hereditary  Prince  of  Sweden,"  was  acclaimed 
as  King  Charles  IX.  At  the  same  time  he  ap- 
pointed an  extraordinary  tribunal  of  members  of 
the  Estates  to  try  the  nobles,  whom  he  accused 
of  treason;  merciless  in  his  vengeance  he  had  the 
fugitive  members  of  the  Council  publicly  be- 
headed in  the  market-place  of  Linkoping.  He 
showed  the  same  severity  in  Finland,  where  the 
son  of  the  Governor  was  executed  as  his  dead 
father  was  beyond  the  King's  reach.  Charles 
did  not  call  himself  king  till  1604,  when  Duke 
John,  Sigismund's  half-brother,  renounced  his 
birthright,  and  was  not  crowned  till  1607.  Charles 
began  the  long  war  of  succession  with  Poland, 
1600-60,  by  invading  Livonia  (August,  1600). 
Next  year  he  was  master  of  the  country  except 
Riga  and  Kokenhausen.  But  in  1601  to  1605 
Poland's  great  general,  Chodkievicz,  recovered 
fortress  after  fortress  and  the  Swedes  were  de- 
feated from  time  to  time.  Their  greatest  defeat 
was  when  Charles  with  sixteen  thousand  men 
attacked  Chodkievicz  with^ily  five  thousand  at 
Kirkholm,  near  Riga,  ancWeft  upon  the  field 
nearly  twice  as  many  dead  as  the  whole  number  of 
the  Polish  troops.  Sigismund  did  not  follow  up 
the  victory.  The  Swedes  took  the  fortresses 
when  the  Poles  were  quarrelling  at  home,  but 
lost  them  again  to  Chodkievicz.  In  1609  Charles 
concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  Tsar 
against    Poland.     Jacob    de    la    Gardie    entered 


The  Reformation — Poland        241 

Moscow  with  an  army  of  mercenaries  (16 10), 
but  at  the  battle  of  Klutsjino  (June,  1610),  his 
mercenaries  deserted,  the  Russians  fled,  and  the 
Poles  entered  Moscow.  Vladislav,  Sigismund's 
son,  was  proclaimed  Tsar.  Soon  the  Russians 
rose  against  their  new  ruler,  De  la  Gardie  stormed 
Kexholm  in  Russian  Finland,  161 1,  and  Novgorod 
in  July,  1 61 1.  He  made  a  treaty  with  Novgorod 
that  Charles  Philip,  the  brother  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  should  be  recognized  by  the  city  as 
Tsar.  It  was  in  this  year  that  the  Danish  war 
began.  Charles  IX  died,  sixty  years  of  age, 
October  30,  161 1.  He  has  been  called  a  cruel 
and  vindictive  tyrant  and  a  harsh  fanatic,  but  he 
showed  courage  and  statesmanship  in  a  difficult 
time  of  transition.  The  Protestant  foundations 
laid  by  Gustavus  Vasa  he  handed  on  to  Gustavus 
Adolphus  greatly  strengthened. 

id 


CHAPTER  XXV 

GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS 

Gustavus  Adolphus  (1611-32)  is  the  greatest 
name  in  Swedish  history,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
all  time.  He  was  born  on  December  9,  1594,  at 
Stockholm  Castle.  His  eloquent  tutor,  Johan 
Skytte,  gave  him  a  humanistic  education  based 
on  the  Bible  and  the  classics.  He  grew  up  with 
Swedish  and  German  for  mother-tongues,  but 
Latin,  Italian,  Dutch,  Russian,  Polish,  Spanish 
were  also  mastered  by  him.  With  equal  ease  he 
learnt  the  science  of  war  and  all  chivalrous  accom- 
plishments. His  mind  and  body  were  so  early 
developed  that  at  thirteen  he  discussed  state 
affairs  with  foreign  ambassadors,  at  fifteen  he 
opened  Parliament  with  a  speech  from  the  throne, 
and  administered  his  own  duchy.  At  sixteen  he 
practically  held  the  reins  of  government  with  his 
father  as  co-regent,  and  won  his  spurs  by  a  daring 
feat  in  the  Danish  war.  He  took  the  fortress  of 
Christianopel  with  a  few  men  by  surprise  (June, 
161 1).  His  father  wished  to  let  him  learn  in  the 
school  of  life,  not  of  books.  Immense  were  the 
hopes  which  centred  on  his  dazzling  natural  gifts. 

242 


Gustavus  Adolphus  243 

All  men  were  swept  off  their  feet  by  his  winning 
charm,  his  fiery  high-mindedness,  his  eager  thirst 
for  knowledge.  His  father  used  to  say  of  him: 
Hie  jaciet,  he  will  do  it — i.  e.,  accomplish  all  he 
could  not  accomplish.  When  he  uttered  these 
words  he  never  dreamt  they  would  come  so  true 
as  they  did. 

When  Charles  IX  died,  October  30,  161 1,  his 
successor  was  not  yet  seventeen  years.  Danger 
surrounded  him  on  all  sides.  At  war  with  Russia; 
Poland,  then  the  largest  kingdom  in  Europe, 
wanting  to  drive  the  Swedes  from  their  footholds 
on  the  shore  of  the  Baltic;  Sweden  barely  holding 
her  own  against  the  Danes,  who  were  in  possession 
of  her  two  chief  fortresses.  There  was  at  first 
a  short  interval  of  regency  by  the  Dowager  Queen 
and  Duke  John.  Though  Gustavus  had  been 
recognized  as  the  heir  to  the  throne  by  the  Norr- 
koping  decree,  yet  by  natural  law  of  descent, 
which  Parliament  could  not  override,  the  son  of 
John  III  had  his  rights.  At  the  Nykoping  Par- 
liament, December,  161 1,  Duke  John  surrendered 
his  claims  to  Gustavus  with  his  blessing.  The 
young  King  was  declared  of  age  though  he  was 
only  seventeen,  not  eighteen,  the  full  age,  and 
fealty  was  sworn  to  him  (December  26,  161 1). 
He  gave  a  royal  charter  extending  the  privileges 
of  the  nobility  and  the  Council,  and  promised  not 
to  declare  war,  conclude  peace  or  alliances,  im- 
pose taxes  or  make  laws  without  the  consent  of 
the  Council,   the  Estates,   and  the  people.     He 


244  The  Story  of  Sweden 

pardoned  the  noblemen  whom  his  father  had 
exiled  and  won  the  hearts  of  the  nobility.  All 
classes  closed  their  ranks  round  the  young  King. 
Its  strong  hereditary  monarchy  and  its  sturdy 
peasantry  saved  Sweden  from  the  disasters  into 
which  the  rule  of  the  nobility  plunged  Denmark. 
Gustavus  omitted  from  his  title  the  words  "King 
of  the  Lapps,"  the  chief  cause  of  the  Danish 
war,  but  Christian  IV  rejected  his  terms.  Dur- 
ing a  raid  in  Scania,  Gustavus  was  surprised  by 
an  overwhelming  force  at  Wittsjo,  February, 
1612,  and  had  a  narrow  escape;  his  horse  fell 
through  the  ice  in  crossing  a  river,  and  he  himself 
was  pulled  out  with  difficulty  by  a  faithful  soldier. 
In  the  summer  of  161 2  the  Danes  took  Elfsborg 
and  Oland  and  penetrated  into  Central  Sweden. 
The  Protestant  Powers  tried  to  negotiate  peace. 
Through  the  mediation  of  James  I,  the  brother-in- 
law  of  Christian  IV,  Danish  and  Swedish  states- 
men met  at  Knared,  in  Halland,  to  discuss  terms,  j 
and  peace  was  signed  there  on  January  20,  161 3; 
on  onerous  terms  for  Sweden.  Sweden  renounced 
her  claims  to  Finmark,  the  country  of  the  Lapps, 
and  conceded  to  Denmark  the  right  to  quarter 
the  three  crowns  in  her  arms.  In  return  Swedish 
vessels  were  to  be  exempt  from  customs  and  dues 
in  the  sound.  Conquests  on  both  sides  were  to 
be  mutually  restored  immediately,  except  Elfs- 
borg, which  was  to  be  redeemed  by  Sweden  for 
one  million  rixdollars,  and  together  with  seven 
counties  of  Vastergotland  to  be  held  by  Denmark 


Gustavus  Adolphus  245 

for  six  years  within  which  the  above  sum  was  to 
be  paid  in  equal  instalments.  Denmark  had 
for  the  last  time  vindicated  her  hegemony  in  the 
North,  and  Sweden  had  a  second  time  to  redeem 
her  only  port  in  the  West.  This  war  indemnity 
pressed  heavily  on  the  people,  and  Gustavus  had 
to  send  all  the  royal  silver  plate  to  the  mint  to 
be  melted  into  coins,  for  Christian  IV  would  only 
accept  ready  money  for  every  instalment.  Every 
Swedish  home  had  to  give  up  some  treasure,  and 
this  has  ever  since  rankled  in  Swedish  memories. 
In  Russia  the  Swedish  arms  were  ever  victo- 
rious. Jacob  de  la  Gardie  conquered  Ingria  and 
compelled  Great  Novgorod,  the  richest  city  in 
Russia,  and  all  North-western  Russia,  to  recognize 
Duke  Charles  Philip,  a  younger  brother  of  Gusta- 
vus, as  Tsar.  He  was  carving  out  a  new  empire, 
stretching  to  the  White  Sea  and  to  the  Ural, 
under  Swedish  suzerainty.  But  Charles  Philip 
arrived  too  late  to  his  empire.  In  February, 
1 61 3,  the  Russian  people  elected  a  native  Russian, 
Michael  Romanov,  Tsar,  and  the  war  against 
Sweden  was  now  carried  on  with  more  energy. 
De  la  Gardie  continued  to  win  victories  over 
superior  forces,  but  nevertheless  he  was  insecure 
in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  population.  Gustavus 
twice  crossed  the  seas  and  conducted  operations  at 
the  seat  of  war.  After  raising  the  siege  of  Pskov 
he  returned  through  Finland;  during  his  stay 
there  he  convoked  the  first  Finnish  diet  (Landt- 
dag)   in  January,    1616.     Again    King    James    I 


246  The  Story  of  Sweden 

mediated  at  the  request  of  Russia,  and  after 
eighteen  months  of  negotiations  peace  was  con- 
cluded on  February  27,  161 7,  at  Stolbova.  Russia 
ceded  to  Sweden  Eastern  Carelia  (Ivexholm 
province)  and  Ingria.  The  key  to  Finland, 
Noteborg  on  the  Neva  (the  later  Schliisselburg) , 
became  Swedish.  Sweden  retroceded  all  other 
conquests  and  acknowledged  Michael  Romanov 
as  Tsar;  Russia  paid  a  war  indemnity  of  twenty 
thousand  rubles  and  renounced  her  claims  on 
Esthonia  and  Livonia.  Trade  was  declared  free 
between  the  two  countries.  At  his  coronation 
soon  after  the  peace,  Gustavus  spoke  to  the  as- 
sembled Estates  about  the  great  advantages  won 
through  this  peace.  Russia  had  been  excluded 
from  the  Baltic,  and  the  eastern  frontier  of  Sweden 
was  now  protected  by  a  barrier  of  morass,  rivers, 
and  lakes,  among  them  the  huge  Ladoga  Lake: 
"I  hope  to  God  the  Russians  will  not  find  it  easy 
to  skip  over  that  brook."  He  understood  fully 
that  when  Russia  became  aware  of  her  giant 
strength  and  pushed  forward  to  the  sea  Sweden 
could  hardly  hope  to  hem  her  in ;  her  population 
numbered  less  than  one  thirtieth  of  that  of  Russia, 
and  she  could  only  defend  her  foothold  on 
the  Baltic  against  the  Russian  Empire  by  sheer 
heroism. 

Four  years  of  peace  followed  the  peace  of  Stol- 
bova. The  truce  with  Poland  was  renewed.  No 
Swedish  king  except  Gustaf  I  has  done  so  much 
for    Sweden    in    times     of    peace    as     Gustavus 


Gustavus  Adolphus  247 

Adolphus.  He  took  the  initiative  in  all  matters, 
starting  afresh  or  completing  the  work  of  his 
father  and  grandfather.  In  161 7,  he  enacted 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  Estates,  England 
being  the  only  other  country  in  Europe  that  had  a 
parliamentary  procedure.  The  King,  supported 
by  the  Council  and  the  highest  officers  of  State, 
addresses  the  four  assembled  Estates.  He  elects 
a  nobleman  to  be  the  spokesman  of  the  nobility, 
the  first  Estate,  who  is  called  Landtmarskalk 
(Marshal  of  the  Diet).  The  Primate  of  Sweden 
is  the  spokesman  of  the  three  lower  Estates. 
Each  Estate  debates  the  royal  proposals  or  bills 
laid  before  it  in  its  own  chamber  separately,  but 
the  reply  of  each  is  handed  to  the  King  in  common 
session.  If  the  King  and  the  Estates  should  differ, 
they  would  meet  each  other  to  adjust  matters; 
but  if  the  Estates  differed  among  themselves, 
each  Estate  was  to  defend  its  own  opinion  before 
the  King,  who  could  accept  the  opinion  he  liked 
best.  The  Constitution  of  the  House  of  Nobles 
(Riddarhus),  instituted  by  Gustavus,  was  given 
in  1626.  Only  the  families  who  had  access  to 
that  House  were  recognized  as  noble,  they  and 
their  descendants;  the  nobility  was  divided  into 
three  classes:  (1)  counts  and  barons,  (2)  descend- 
ants of  State  councillors,  (3)  knights.  As  each 
class  voted  as  a  separate  body,  the  highest  nobles, 
though  few  in  number,  prevailed  in  that  House. 
But  if  the  nobility  had  great  privileges,  Gustavus 
demanded    much    from    them;    every    nobleman 


248  The  Story  of  Sweden 

must  need  serve  the  State,  in  peace  or  in  war. 
The  nobility  were  carried  away  by  an  irresistible 
current  of  devotion,  of  gratitude,  of  affection  and 
admiration  for  the  genius  in  whom  was  seen  that 
rarest  of  combinations — strength  and  gentleness. 
They  abandoned  many  of  their  privileges  and 
submitted  to  be  taxed  like  other  classes,  for  a  time. 
Class  egotism  could  not  live  near  the  great  King 
who  inspired  them  with  his  example. 

He  put  the  whole  administration  on  a  new  foot- 
ing. He  established  a  Supreme  Court  at  Stock- 
holm, 1 614,  from  which  an  appeal  lay  to  the  King. 
He  addressed  the  judges  thus:  "If  any  judge  acts 
with  a  view  to  please  the  King  or  any  one  else, 
the  King  will  have  him  flayed,  his  skin  nailed  up 
in  court,  and  his  ears  on  the  stocks."  Taxation 
was  simplified  and  regulated,  and  the  first  State 
Budget  of  Sweden  was  issued.  He  founded  fifteen 
new  towns.  Gothenburg  (Goteborg),  destroyed 
in  the  Danish  war,  was  rebuilt  on  its  present  site, 
1619.  The  Dutch  millionaire,  Louis  De  Geer, 
was  called  in  to  start  ironworks  and  mining  on 
a  large  scale.  Gustavus  gave  to  the  University 
of  Uppsala  the  whole  of  his  patrimony,  all  that 
remained  of  the  Gustavian  estates,  over  three 
hundred  farms,  even  to-day  the  chief  source  of 
income  of  that  university.  Klas  Fleming  created 
a  Swedish  navy  numbering  about  sixty  men-of- 
war.  Famous  foreigners  entered  his  service, 
Hugo  Grotius,  Van  Dyck,  Rutgers. 

King  Sigismund  of  Poland  claimed  the  throne 


Gustavus  Adolphus  249 

of  Sweden  by  right  of  primogeniture,  and  contempt- 
uously gave  Gustavus  the  title  of  Duke  of  Soder- 
manland  in  their  negotiations.  To  Gustavus  a 
war  against  Poland  was  a  war  of  religion.  Poland 
was  to  him  a  dangerous  member  of  the  Popish 
League.  The  truce  between  Sweden  and  Poland 
had  been  renewed  from  year  to  year.  In  1621 
Poland  was  involved  in  a  war  with  Turkey,  and 
after  Sigismund  had  rejected  the  offer  of  Gustavus 
to  allow  him  to  assume  the  title  of  King  of  Sweden, 
Gustavus  sailed  with  a  large  fleet  and  an  army, 
July,  1 62 1,  and. laid  siege  to  Riga.  The  King 
directed  the  siege  of  this  strong  city  with  consum- 
mate ability;  to  encourage  the  soldiers  he  and  his 
brother  worked  with  spades  in  the  trenches. 
After  a  month's  valiant  defence  Riga  surrendered 
and  the  greater  part  of  Livonia  swore  fealty  to 
Gustavus.  His  brother,  Duke  Charles  Philip, 
died  in  January,  1622,  of  dysentery  which  was 
making  great  ravages  in  the  Swedish  army.  The 
fame  of  Gustavus  spread  in  Europe  and  all  Pro- 
testants looked  to  him  to  right  the  cause  of  the 
German  Protestants  against  Catholic  tyranny. 
He  wanted  to  unite  all  the  Protestant  Powers  in 
a  league,  of  which  he  was  to  be  the  leader.  But 
Christian  IV,  jealous  of  the  rising  power  of  Sweden 
took  the  lead  single-handed  against  the  House 
of  Habsburg  in  the  disastrous  war,  1625-29. 
Gustavus,  after  the  expiry  of  a  truce  (1622-25), 
continued  his  war  in  Poland,  in  1625.  He  com- 
pleted   the   conquest   of   Livonia,    won   his   first 


250  The  Story  of  Sweden 

pitched  battle  at  Wallhof,  January,  1626,  without 
losing  a  single  man,  after  crossing  the  frozen 
Dwina,  and  invaded  Courland  and  Lithuania. 
In  his  next  campaign,  in  the  summer  of  1626,  he 
transferred  the  war  to  the  Prussian  provinces  of 
Poland.  He  wished  to  secure  the  control  of  the 
Vistula,  like  that  of  the  Dwina,  in  order  to  force 
Poland  to  make  peace.  His  brother-in-law,  the 
Protestant  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  Georg  Wilhelm, 
held  East  Prussia  as  a  fief  from  Poland,  and  the 
Protestant  city,  Dantzic,  would,  Gustavus  thought, 
support  him  against  Catholic  Poland.  But  the 
cautious  Elector  feared  the  threats  of  his  suzerain, 
Sigismund  of  Poland,  and  dared  not  ally  himself 
with  Gustavus  for  fear  of  losing  his  fief,  East 
Prussia.  Dantzic,  too,  besides  enjoying  the  full- 
est religious  liberty,  had  free  trade  with  her 
suzerain,  Poland.  In  June,  1626,  Gustavus  ar- 
rived with  his  fleet  before  Pillau.  This  place 
commanded  the  Vistula,  and  from  it  duties  could 
be  levied  on  all  Prussian  trade.  It  belonged  to 
the  Elector,  but  Gustavus  occupied  it  for  strategic 
reasons.  Axel  Oxenstierna  became  the  first  gov- 
ernor of  the  conquered  territory  in  the  delta  of  the 
Vistula. 

The  wealthy  Hansa  city  of  Dantzic  was  now 
invested  by  land  and  sea.  The  siege  dragged  on, 
and  the  Swedes  were  harassed  by  the  brave  Pol- 
ish guerilla  leader,  Koniecpolski.  In  his  second 
Prussian  campaign,  1627,  Gustavus  beat  the  Poles 
in  many  actions;  under  fire  he  often  went  ahead 


Gustavus  Adolphus  251 

of  his  men,  and  was  twice  dangerously  wounded 
by  bullets,  and  so  disabled  in  one  shoulder  that  he 
could  never  wear  armour  again.  Meanwhile, 
in  1627  Wallenstein's  armies  ravaged  all  Jut- 
land, and  occupied  the  Baltic  coast.  Wallenstein 
aimed  at  dominating  the  Baltic  with  a  strong  fleet, 
after  seizing  the  Danish  islands.  The  Emperor 
nominated  him  "Captain-General  of  the  Baltic." 
Austria  and  Spain  were  thus  on  the  point  of  crush- 
ing Protestantism  in  the  North.  After  Denmark 
it  would  be  the  turn  of  Sweden.  Gustavus  saw 
that  war  between  himself  and  the  House  of  Habs- 
burg  was  inevitable,  and  prepared  for  it.  The 
Parliament  of  1627  granted  him  subsidies  to  con- 
tinue the  war.  A  secret  committee  of  the  Estates 
advised  him  to  resist  the  domination  of  the  Baltic 
by  the  Emperor  and  assist  Denmark.  The  Nether- 
lands in  vain  attempted  to  mediate.  Sigismund 
continued  to  refuse  Gustavus  the  title  of  King. 
Then  Gustavus  took  a  decisive  step.  Early  in 
1628  he  made  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  Denmark 
for  the  defence  of  the  Baltic,  and  also  with  the 
Hansa  city  of  Stralsund,  then  besieged  and  hard 
pressed  by  Wallenstein.  Stralsund  was  so  strongly 
reinforced  by  Danish  and  Swedish  troops  that  it 
held  out  against  Wallenstein.  Gustavus  counted 
on  the  assistance  of  Denmark  to  make  Germany 
the  seat  of  war,  and  met  Christian  IV  in  February, 
1629,  in  a  parsonage  on  the  border  of  Halland. 
In  eloquent  words  he  begged  Danes  and  Swedes 
to  stand  together  to  defend  their  liberties  and  their 


252  The  Story  of  Sweden 

religion  against  the  tyranny  of  the  Emperor  and 
the  Catholics.  Christian  IV  said  Gustavus  had 
better  leave  the  Emperor  in  peace.  Gustavus 
then  burst  out  in  anger:  "Your  Highness  may  be 
sure  of  this,  that  be  it  who  it  will,  who  acts  thus 
against  us,  Emperor  or  King,  Prince  or  Republic, 
or  thousand  devils,  we  shall  seize  one  another  by 
the  ears  so  hard  that  the  hairs  shall  stand  on  end." 
The  interview  was  without  result.  By  conclud- 
ing peace  at  Liibeck  on  favourable  conditions  the 
Emperor  detached  Christian  IV  from  his  ally. 
The  delegates  of  Sweden  were  refused  access  to 
the  peace  negotiations  by  Wallenstein.  During 
Gustavus's  fourth  Prussian  campaign  in  1629, 
ten  thousand  Imperial  troops  under  Johan  von 
Arnim,  joined  the  Poles  against  him.  From  his 
entrenched  camps  in  the  delta  of  the  Vistula  he 
defied  their  superior  forces.  In  a  surprise  attack 
by  Koniecpolski  near  Stuhm,  Gustavus  several 
times  narrowly  escaped  death  or  capture.  Poland 
was  tired  of  the  continuous  war,  and  accepted  the 
mediation  of  France.  A  six  years'  truce  was 
concluded  at  Altmark  on  the  Vistula,  1629. 
During  this  truce  Sweden  was  to  retain  Livonia 
with  Riga,  in  West  Prussia,  Elbing,  Braunsberg, 
and  a  huge  slice  of  the  delta  of  the  Vistula,  and 
in  East  Prussia,  Pillau  and  Memel.  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna  became  the  first  Governor-General  of  the 
conquered  Prussian  provinces.  Most  important 
were  the  large  customs  duties  levied  at  the  Prus- 
sian ports  by  Sweden;   they   produced   a  larger 


Gustavus  Adolphus  253 

sum  than  the  whole  revenue  of  Sweden  herself, 
and  the  control  of  Germany's  principal  trade 
routes  to  the  Baltic  also  assisted  Gustavus  in  the 
arduous  enterprise  for  which  he  was  making  anx- 
ious and  elaborate  preparations.  A  nation  num- 
bering a  little  over  a  million  set  out  to  measure 
itself  against  the  greatest  military  Power  of  the 
time.  The  little  Swedish  army  of  hardy  yeomen 
was  to  measure  itself  against  armies  numerically 
many  times  superior,  and  commanded  by  generals 
reputed  to  be  invincible.  We  can  read  Gustavus's 
mind  in  his  correspondence  with  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna.  Since  war  was  inevitable,  it  was  best,  he 
argued,  to  make  Germany  the  seat  of  war.  The 
Swedish  fleet  was  too  weak  to  blockade  the  Baltic 
ports.  It  was  safer  to  seize  and  fortify  them,  and 
so  prevent  the  Emperor  from  building  up  in  the 
Baltic  a  sea  power  threatening  the  independence 
both  of  Sweden  and  Denmark.  This  could  only 
be  done  by  offensive  war  in  the  heart  of  the  enemy's 
country.  It  was  true  the  risk  of  being  over- 
whelmed by  huge  armies  commanded  by  the 
greatest  generals  of  the  age,  Tilly  and  Wallen- 
stein,  was  great,  but  "one  lost  battle  would  give 
the  Emperor's  prestige  a  bad  shaking,"  and  one 
success  would  win  allies  and  assistance  in  Germany 
itself.  Deeply  religious  as  Gustavus  was,  he  re- 
garded himself  as  the  divinely  appointed  instru- 
ment of  delivery  for  his  fellow-Protestants  in 
Germany  from  "the  murder  of  their  souls  by 
tyranny."     He    was    intensely    convinced    that 


254  The  Story  of  Sweden 

God  would  help  his  cause,  the  cause  of  humanity, 
yet  fully  aware  that  Sweden  might  through  him 
win  the  hegemony  of  Protestant  Europe,  Sweden, 
which  after  all  occupied  the  largest  part  of  his 
heart.  Thus,  even  in  the  highest  of  mankind, 
motives  are  mixed. 

When  he  was  ready,  he  summoned  the  Estates 
to  Stockholm,  and  solemnly  took  leave  of  them 
on  May  19,  1630,  holding  in  his  arms  his  only 
child,  Christina,  then  three  years  old.  He  com- 
mitted the  heir  to  the  throne  to  the  keeping  of  his 
faithful  subjects.  He  declared  to  them,  as  he 
stood  there  in  the  sight  of  the  Almighty,  that  he 
had  not  entered  upon  this  war  out  of  desire  for 
war,  "as  many  will  certainly  impute  and  imagine," 
but  in  self-defence,  driven  thereto  by  the  hostile 
acts  of  the  Emperor  and  by  the  prayers  of  oppressed 
fellow-Protestants.  He  wished  to  lay  bare  his 
motives.  He  addressed  each  Estate  separately 
with  words  of  encouragement  and  advice.  He 
finally  uttered  memorable  words,  filled  with  the 
foreboding  that  he  was  never  to  set  eyes  on 
Sweden  again.  "Since  it  generally  happens  that 
the  pitcher  goes  so  often  to  the  well  that  at  last 
it  breaks,  thus  also  it  will  fall  out  with  me  that  I, 
who  in  many  dangers  have  needs  shed  my  blood 
for  the  welfare  of  Sweden,  though  hitherto  God 
has  spared  my  life,  yet  at  last  I  must  lose  it. 
Therefore  I  do  commend  you  all  to  God's  protec- 
tion, wishing  that  after  this  troublesome  life  we  may 
all  meet  each  other  with  God  in  the  heavenly 


Gustavus  Adolphus  255 

immortal  life."  When  he  had  foretold  his  own 
death  in  these  simple  words,  all  eyes  were  filled 
with  tears.  But  their  hearts  were  full  of  high 
hopes,  and  they  shrank  from  no  sacrifice.  The 
Secret  Committee  of  the  Estates  granted  him 
subsidies  for  three  years  in  advance. 

On  Midsummer  Day,  1630,  the  Swedish  fleet 
arrived  off  the  island  of  Usedom,  on  the  Pomeranian 
coast.  Gustavus  landed  his  army,  thirteen  thou- 
sand men,  at  Peenemunde.  He  was  the  first 
to  step  ashore,  where  he  knelt  down  in  silent 
prayer.  Round  him  knelt  his  officers,  Swedish 
noblemen  whose  names  were  soon  to  be  embla- 
zoned on  the  roll  of  the  great  military  commanders 
of  the  time.  The  sunny  and  stimulating  influ- 
ence of  Gustavus  drew  out  the  great  qualities  in 
the  men  around  him.  Single-handed  against 
the  mighty  empire  on  whose  threshold  they  stood, 
they  faced  the  odds  with  confidence.  The  Swed- 
ish garrison  in  Stralsund,  commanded  by  Leslie, 
had  taken  Rugen;  the  King  now  occupied  Use- 
dom and  Wollin,  and  in  a  few  months,  by  means 
of  reinforcements,  he  commanded  forty  thousand 
men,  one  half  of  them  Swedes.  He  began  to 
penetrate  into  Germany  along  the  line  of  the  Oder. 
Stettin  was  the  key  to  it,  but  Bogislav  IV,  Duke 
of  Pomerania,  sat  neutral  in  his  capital.  Gustavus 
suddenly  stood  before  Stettin  and  compelled  the 
old  Duke  to  receive  a  Swedish  garrison  and  leave 
his  duchy  in  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  There 
was  no  resistance,  for  the  Pomeranians  received 


256  The  Story  of  Sweden 

him  with  open  arms  as  a  friend  and  deliverer; 
Stettin  became  the  base  of  operations  to  clear 
Pomerania  of  Imperial  troops,  which  was  finished 
by  the  end  of  the  year.  The  strict  discipline  of 
the  Swedes  won  them  the  confidence  of  the  in- 
habitants, who  were  used  to  the  roughness  of  the 
mercenaries  of  every  nationality  who  served  the 
Emperor.  The  name  of  the  "gracious,  gentle 
master"  became  a  household  word  in  every 
German  home.  The  people  welcomed  him,  but 
the  German  Protestant  princes  were  held  back 
by  petty  jealousies  and  fear  of  the  Emperor. 
Fortunately,  amidst  all  this  pusillanimity  the 
Emperor  dismissed  Wallenstein  and  reduced  his 
army  at  the  bidding  of  the  Catholic  League, 
August,  1630.  Gustavus  had  refused  the  offer 
of  an  alliance  by  France  until  Richelieu  treated 
him  as  an  equal.  At  Barwalde,  on  January  13, 
1 63 1,  an  alliance  with  France  was  concluded  by 
Gustavus,  who  undertook  to  restore  the  status 
quo  ante  in  Germany  and  maintain  there  an  army 
of  twenty-six  thousand  men,  in  return  for  an  an- 
nual subsidy  of  four  hundred  thousand  rixdollars. 
The  leading  Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg, shilly-shallied  and  tried  to  induce  Gustavus 
to  turn  back.  A  Protestant  congress  sat  for  three 
months  at  Leipsic,  and  the  result  of  all  its  verbiage 
was  nil.  But  Magdeburg  had  openly  declared 
for  Gustavus  in  August,  1630.  He  promised  to 
protect  this  great  city,  which  undertook  to  hold 


Gustavus  Adolphus  257 

the  passage  across  the  Elbe  open  for  him.  He 
sent  one  of  his  ablest  officers  to  organize  the. 
defence  of  the  city,  which  was  besieged  by  the 
Imperial  troops.  He  had  given  his  royal  word 
to  relieve  Magdeburg,  the  key  to  South-west 
Germany,  his  only  ally.  He  made  two  attempts 
to  relieve  her  by  way  of  Mecklenburg.  Mean- 
while food  and  ammunition  were  running  short, 
and  despairing  appeals  reached  Gustavus,  who, 
in  order  to  arrive  in  time  to  save  the  city,  de- 
manded of  the  two  Protestant  Electors  (Bran- 
denburg and  Saxony)  a  free  passage  through  their 
territory  and  the  union  of  their  troops  with  his, 
since  the  besieging  army  under  Tilly  was  double 
the  strength  of  that  of  Gustavus.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  dictate  terms  to  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg at  the  gates  of  Berlin,  May  14,  1631;  the 
Elector  was  to  pay  monthly  subsidies  to  him  and 
leave  his  two  main  fortresses  in  Swedish  hands 
till  Magdeburg  was  relieved.  The  Elector  of 
Saxony,  however,  barred  the  ford  on  the  Elbe  at 
Wittenberg,  the  nearest  way  to  Magdeburg,  and 
Gustavus  had  to  take  a  longer  route.  On  the 
very  day  he  had  to  turn  back,  May  20,  Magde- 
burg had  been  stormed,  plundered,  and  fired  by 
the  hordes  of  Tilly.  The  wealthiest  and  most 
populous  city  of  North  Germany  was  reduced  to 
a  heap  of  black  ruins,  and  Tilly's  army  had 
to  retreat  southwards,  in  a  famished  condition. 
Gustavus  had  solemnly  held  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
responsible  at  the  time  for  what  evil  might  befall 
17 


258  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Magdeburg,  but  the  blame  of  its  fate  was,  never- 
theless, laid  on  himself.  '  He  now  entrenched  him- 
self at  Werben,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Havel  and 
the  Elbe.  His  army  was  too  weak  in  numbers 
till  the  German  Protestants  joined,  but  he  beat 
off  Tilly's  superior  forces  with  ease  in  his  trenches. 
The  Emperor,  by  ordering  the  disbandment  of 
the  troops  of  the  Protestant  princes  and  the  execu- 
tion of  the  sequestration  decrees  against  them, 
forced  them  out  of  their  neutrality.  Landgrave 
William  of  Hesse-Cassel  and  the  Dukes  William 
and  Bernard  of  Saxe-Weimar,  tried  warriors, 
joined  Gustavus  in  his  camp.  Even  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  was  forced  out  of  his  neutrality.  Tilly 
ravaged  his  territory  when  he  refused  to  declare 
himself  friend  or  foe.  Courier  upon  courier 
reached  Gustavus  imploring  his  assistance,  and 
a  treaty  was  concluded  which  made  him  master 
of  Saxony  and  its  army.  He  could  now  take  the 
field  as  the  recognized  leader  of  all  German  Pro- 
testants. Tilly  awaited  him  in  the  plain  of  Brei- 
tenfeld,  one  mile  north  of  Leipsic.  The  opposed 
armies  were  almost  equally  strong,  but  the  Impe- 
rialists stood  on  the  edge  of  rising  ground.  The 
invincible  Spanish  tertiaries  were  massed  together 
in  huge  squares,  fifty  men  deep.  The  Swedish 
lines  were  only  six  men  deep.  Gustavus,  a  master 
in  the  art  of  war,  introduced  two  changes  which 
marked  the  difference  between  mediaeval  and 
modern  tactics.  He  substituted  light  columns 
and  shallow  lines  of  soldiers  for  the  fighting  in 


Gustavus  Adolphus  259 

heavy  masses.  He  introduced  flying  artillery; 
up  till  then  artillery  was  stationed  in  a  fixed  posi- 
tion, as  Tilly's  was  at  Breitenfeld.  The  flint- 
lock muskets  of  Gustavus  were  light  to  handle, 
while  Tilly's  muskets  were  so  heavy  that  they  had 
to  be  rested  on  iron  forks  in  the  ground  when  the 
burning  matches  were  applied  to  them.  The 
King  himself  commanded  the  right  wing,  Gustavus 
Horn  the  left,  Lennart  Torstensson  the  artillery. 
Gustavus,  reining  in  his  horse  in  front  of  his 
troops,  bared  his  head  and  said  in  a  loud  voice: 
"From  a  distant  land,  from  beloved  homes,  are 
we  come  here  to  battle  for  freedom,  for  truth, 
for  Thy  Gospel.  Give  us  victory  for  the  sake  of 
Thy  Holy  Name.     Amen ! " 

The  battle  lasted  from  sunrise  to  sunset  of 
September  7,  1631,  and  was  hotly  contested. 
The  Saxons,  on  the  extreme  left,  "took  to  their 
heels  by  companies,"  as  Gustavus  said  afterwards, 
at  the  first  onset,  and  the  victorious  Imperialists 
with  overwhelming  forces,  took  Horn  in  the  flank, 
but  he  coolly  reformed  his  front  in  the  midst  of 
the  action  and  beat  them  off.  On  the  right  wing 
the  famous  cavalry  leader,  Pappenheim,  charged 
no  less  than  seven  times  with  his  irresistible  dash 
and  bravery,  and  was  repulsed  each  time  by  the 
cool,  steady  fire  of  the  Swedish  infantry  under 
Baner,  who  reformed  his  ranks  during  a  life  and 
death  struggle  against  superior  forces.  Gustavus 
stormed  the  hill  on  which  Tilly's  guns  were 
placed,   and   after  .capturing   them   turned  them 


26o  The  Story  of  Sweden 

against  his  centre.  This  decided  the  issue  of 
the  battle.  The  Imperialists  scattered  in  wild 
flight.  Wounded  in  three  places,  Tilly  was  only 
saved  by  the  invincible  Spanish  tertiaries,  which 
stood  like  a  wall,  under  a  deadly  artillery  fire, 
in  the  square  formed  round  him,  till  sunset,  and 
then  retired  slowly.  The  slaughter  was  great; 
seven  thousand  Imperialists  killed  and  five  thou- 
sand prisoners;  their  camp  and  artillery  and 
the  military  chest  fell  into  Swedish  hands.  The 
Swedes  lost  seven  hundred  men,  and  the  Saxons 
two  thousand.  It  was  the  first  pitched  battle 
fought  by  Gustavus  after  his  landing  and  it  marks 
a  turning-point  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The 
defeat  of  the  invincible  Tilly  saved  the  German 
Protestants  from  being  crushed  by  the  House  of 
Austria ;  it  raised  Sweden  to  the  rank  of  one  of  the 
Great  Powers  of  Europe.  Good  Catholics  refused 
to  believe  in  the  victory  of  Gustavus,  as  "if  God 
had  suddenly  turned  Lutheran." 

Two  main  roads  stood  open  to  Gustavus  in 
following  up  his  victory,  south-east  to  the  Austrian 
Crownlands,  or  south-west  into  Franconia.  At 
a  council  of  war  Oxenstierna  was  in  favour  of 
dictating  peace  at  the  gates  of  Vienna,  but  Gusta- 
vus thought  it  unsafe  to  leave  Tilly  in  his  rear  and 
decided  to  liberate  and  arm  the  Protestants  in 
South-west  Germany.  He  sent  the  Saxon  Elector 
into  Bohemia,  while  he  himself,  now  master  of  the 
line  of  the  Elbe,  marched  to  the  Rhine.  His 
journey  was  more  like  a  triumphal  progress  than 


SEAL  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS 


Gustavus  Adolphus  261 

a  campaign.  Rich  towns  and  fortresses  surren- 
dered at  his  approach  on  his  way  through  the 
Main  valley.  Marienburg-on-Main  was  carried 
by  storm  and  sacked;  its  valuable  library  was 
sent  to  Uppsala,  and  the  Swedish  soldiers  counted 
their  gold  coins  by  the  hatful.  He  crossed  the 
Rhine  and  cleared  the  Palatinate  of  its  Spanish 
garrisons.  At  Mayence  he  established  his  winter 
quarters,  while  he  resided  at  Frankfort-am-Main, 
where  he  was  joined  by  his  queen  and  his  chancel- 
lor. All  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany  and 
ambassadors  and  diplomatists  from  all  Europe 
flocked  to  his  Court.  At  Christmas,  1631,  his 
armies  numbered  one  hundred  thousand  men, 
only  one  fifth  of  them  Swedes.  His  front  ex- 
tended from  the  Rhine  and  Neckar  to  the  Moldau. 
For  the  Saxon  Elector  had  occupied  Prague. 
Gustavus  planned  a  League  of  all  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany,  under  the  headship  of 
Sweden.  The  Baltic  Empire,  necessary  for  the 
existence  of  Sweden,  was  to  be  established  by 
members  of  the  League  guaranteeing  to  Sweden 
her  possession  of  the  Baltic  coast  of  Germany. 
With  the  object  of  alienating  his  ally,  France, 
still  more  gigantic  plans  were  attributed  to  the 
"Protestant  Emperor,"  as  he  was  called,  namely, 
that  after  the  conquest  of  Germany  he  wished  to 
subdue  France  with  the  assistance  of  the  Hugue- 
nots and  even  to  extirpate  Catholicism  in  Europe 
by  crossing  the  Alps  and  seizing  the  keys  of  St. 
Peter. 


262  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1632  Tilly  advanced 
from  the  Danube  against  Horn,  who  commanded 
one  of  the  four  armies  which  Gustavus  had  raised, 
and  reoccupied  Bamberg.  The  King  now  set 
out  from  the  Rhine  with  the  main  army,  leaving 
Oxenstierna  to  guard  his  conquests  there,  and 
repulsed  Tilly  who  retired  into  Bavaria.  On  his 
way  he  visited  the  free  Protestant  city  of  Nurn- 
berg  where  costly  gifts  and  honours  were  showered 
on  the  liberator.  The  capture  of  Donauworth 
opened  to  him  the  passage  across  the  Danube, 
but  he  found  Tilly  awaiting  him  in  a  strongly  en- 
trenched camp  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  River 
Lech.  Under  the  protection  of  a  heavy  artillery 
fire  he  forced  the  passage  of  the  Lech;  a  cannon- 
ball  shattered  Tilly's  leg  early  in  the  action,  and 
his  dispirited  troops  fled  from  their  entrenchments 
pursued  by  the  Swedes.  Tilly  died  a  fortnight 
later,  being  spared  the  disgrace  of  resigning  his 
command  to  Wallenstein.  Bavaria  now  lay  at 
the  feet  of  the  conqueror;  city  upon  city,  freed 
from  its  Catholic  garrison,  did  homage  to  him, 
and  in  May,  1632,  he  entered  Munich  without 
opposition.  He  was  now  master  of  territories 
that  extended  from  the  Alps — his  troops  had 
occupied  the  Alpine  passes — to  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
Never  before  had  Sweden  been  raised  to  such  a 
pinnacle  of  power  and  glory. 

Meantime  Wallenstein  had  been  sulking  in 
Bohemia,  after  his  dismissal,  and  even  entered 
into  secret  correspondence  with  Gustavus.     The 


Gustavus  Adolphus  263 

Emperor  now  appealed  to  him.  He  would  only 
take  command  on  condition  that  plenipotentiary 
powers,  military  and  political,  independent  of 
the  Emperor,  were  conceded  to  him.  He  took 
the  field  with  forty  thousand  men,  stamped  out 
of  the  earth  by  the  magic  of  his  name,  occupied 
Prague  and  cleared  Bohemia  of  the  Saxons  with 
great  speed.  Then  he  marched  into  Franconia 
to  draw  Gustavus  northward  and  avert  the  danger 
that  threatened  Austria.  He  tried  to  win  over  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  by  offering  him  his  own  terms. 
Gustavus  hastened  north,  but  after  the  junction 
of  Wallenstein's  army  with  that  of  Maximilian 
of  Bavaria  had  raised  it  to  sixty  thousand  men 
his  army  was  less  than  one  third  of  the  Imperialist 
forces,  and  he  therefore  retired  within  the  walls 
of  Nurnberg,  which  he  converted  into  a  strongly 
fortified  camp.  Wallenstein,  on  his  part,  en- 
trenched himself  on  the  neighbouring  hills  in  a 
camp  twelve  miles  in  circumference  in  order  to 
blockade  the  King  in  the  city.  From  June  30th 
to  August  2 1st  they  laid  siege  to  each  other, 
watching  closely  every  movement.  Reinforced 
with  fresh  troops  drawn  from  his  scattered  armies 
the  King,  after  vainly  offering  battle  to  Wallen- 
stein, stormed  Alte  Veste,  the  main  position  of 
Wallenstein's  camp  (August  24th),  but  had  to 
withdraw  with  heavy  losses.  Torstensson  was 
made  prisoner  and  Baner  wounded  in  his  de- 
sperate climbing  of  this  steep  hill.  As  famine  and 
disease  raged  in  the  city  and  in  his  camp,  Gustavus 


264  The  Story  of  Sweden 

marched  away  southwards  and  Wallenstein  had 
to  leave  for  the  same  reasons.  Both  had  endured 
all  the  horrors  of  a  siege  and  lost  nearly  thirty 
thousand  soldiers,  with  no  decisive  results,  for  it 
was  a  drawn  game.  Wallenstein  now  invaded 
Saxony  to  compel  the  Elector  to  abandon  the 
Swedish  alliance,  and  Gustavus  had  to  return 
from  the  Danube,  by  forced  marches,  to  prevent 
the  vacillating  Elector  from  being  won  over  by  the 
enemy.  As  he  passed,  in  towns  and  villages, 
the  inhabitants  flocked  together  to  gaze  upon 
the  "Liberator,"  kneeling  and  struggling  for  the 
honour  of  touching  the  sheath  of  his  sword  or  the 
hem  of  his  garment.  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar 
joined  him  and  he  decided  to  surprise  Wallenstein, 
who  had  sent  Pappenheim  with  ten  thousand  men 
away.  Wallenstein  consulted  his  astrologers  and, 
finding  the  stars  hostile  to  Gustavus,  determined 
on  battle  on  the  plain  of  Lutzen.  Owing  to  delay 
in  the  Swedish  advance  Wallenstein  found  time 
to  collect  his  forces,  more  than  equal  in  strength 
to  the  Swedish  army.  Pappenheim  called  back, 
arrived  in  time  for  the  battle. 

On  the  morning  of  November  6,  1632,  at  dawn, 
all  was  in  readiness  and  in  full  order  of  battle, 
but  a  thick  autumn  mist  which  covered  the 
plain  retarded  the  Swedish  attack  till  noon.  The 
Swedish  foot  were  in  the  centre,  commanded  by 
Nils  Brahe,  the  right  wing  was  led  by  the  King 
in  person,  the  left  by  Duke  Bernard.  King  and 
army  knelt  down  in  prayer,  whereupon  the  King, 


Gustavus  Adolphus  265 

clad  in  a  leathern  doublet,  his  wounds  not  per- 
mitting him  to  wear  armour,  rode  along  the  ranks, 
to  animate  and  inspire  his  soldiers.  The  mist 
began  to  clear.  The  signal  to  advance  was  given. 
Against  the  deadly  fire  of  musketry  and  artillery 
from  the  trenches  the  Swedes  pressed  forward 
across  the  high  road  with  deep  ditches,  which  ran 
along  the  front  of  the  Imperialists;  they  carried 
a  battery  and  trained  its  cannon  against  the 
enemy.  Overwhelmed  by  superior  numbers  they 
were  driven  back,  with  the  loss  of  the  captured 
battery,  leaving  the  trenches  strewed  with  their 
dead.  When  the  Swedish  infantry  were  repulsed 
Gustavus  brought  up  cavalry  and  passed  the 
ditch.  By  this  time  the  autumn  mist  again  ob- 
scured the  battlefield.  Victorious  again  Gustavus 
learned  that  Pappenheim  was  overwhelming  his 
left  wing.  Placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Smaland  horse  he  rode  hurriedly  to  the  rescue, 
but  owing  to  the  lightning  speed  at  which  he  rode 
only  three  attendants  and  the  Duke  of  Lauenburg 
could  keep  pace  with  him.  In  the  fog  he  came 
close  upon  Austrian  cavalry;  in  the  hand-to-hand 
fight  his  horse  was  wounded  and  his  arm  was 
shattered  by  a  musket-ball.  Overcome  with  pain, 
he  requested  the  Duke  to  lead  him  out  of  the 
melee,  but  was  shot  through  the  back  when 
moving  off;  as  he  sank  from  his  horse  his  page 
tried  to  help  him  to  mount  another  when  the 
Croatian  horsemen  came  up  and  dispatched  him 
with  shot  and  sword  as  he  lay  on  the  ground. 


266  The  Story  of  Sweden 

The  royal  steed,  its  empty  saddle  covered  with 
blood,  galloping  along  their  ranks,  announced  to 
the  Swedes  the  death  of  their  leader.  The  fate 
of  their  beloved  hero  inspired  them  with  a  mad 
thirst  for  revenge,  and  the  soldiers  demanded 
loudly  to  be  led  against  the  enemy;  exhausted  as 
they  were,  they  threw  themselves  on  the  Imperial- 
ists in  an  irresistible  charge.  The  enemy  retired 
in  confusion  and  their  batteries  were  taken.  But 
overpowered  with  fresh  numbers  the  Swedes  were 
driven  beyond  the  trenches ;  whole  regiments  were 
cut  down  and  Nils  Brahe  mortally  wounded. 
Pappenheim  was  shot  through  the  heart,  searching 
for  Gustavus  in  the  hostile  ranks,  but  he  learnt 
the  news  of  his  death  before  he  closed  his  eyes. 
Finally  Wallenstein  retreated  under  cover  of 
darkness,  leaving  his  artillery  on  the  battlefield 
which  was  covered  with  more  than  twelve  thou- 
sand dead  and  wounded.  The  lifeless  body  of  the 
Hero  King  was  discovered  buried  under  a  heap 
of  dead,  stripped  stark  naked,  covered  with  blood 
from  nine  wounds,  trampled  by  horse-hoofs  al- 
most beyond  recognition.  The  battle  was  cele- 
brated as  a  victory  by  Austria  and  Spain,  Te 
Deums  were  celebrated  at  Vienna,  Madrid,  and 
Rome,  and  a  miracle  play,  "The  Death  of  the 
King  of  Sweden,"  was  acted  before  the  Spanish 
Court. 

At  the  height  of  his  fame  and  power,  in  the  flower 
of  his  age,  thirty-three  days  before  he  completed 
his  thirty-eighth  year,  he  died  the  death  on  the 


Gustavus  Adolphus  267 

battlefield  he  always  had  in  view.  Rarely  had 
one  man's  death  made  a  deeper  impression.  The 
jubilant  Catholics  could  not  withhold  their  ad- 
miration, and  even  in  their  portraits  his  heroic 
figure  stands  forth  luminous.  A  deliverer,  true, 
wise,  pure,  and  noble,  he  is  one  of  the  few  who 
have  wrested  round  the  course  of  the  world.  Yet 
he  died  full  of  aspirations  which  were  still  unsatis- 
fied, marvellous  as  his  achievements  had  been. 
As  Oxenstierna  says  in  his  letters,  to  be  a  Pro- 
testant Emperor,  a  Scandinavian  Emperor  of  a 
Baltic  Empire  with  Sweden  for  its  centre,  this 
was  his  aim.  "He  saved  religious  liberty  for  the 
world,"  says  the  German  inscription  on  the  stone 
at  Breitenfeld.  Even  the  down-trodden  Greek 
at  the  sound  of  his  name  dreamed  of  freedom. 
Religion  and  policy  were  with  him  closely  inter- 
twined. If  religious  liberty  was  destroyed  in 
Germany,  it  could  not  live  in  Sweden,  and  Ger- 
many lay  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the  Jesuits, 
"the  enemies  of  God  and  man."  In  the  midst 
of  success  and  prosperity  he  looked  upon  himself 
as  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God.  The  British 
Ambassador  at  the  Swedish  Court,  Sir  Thomas 
Roe,  writes  to  London  on  August  16,  1630,  of 
Gustavus:  "How  necessary  he  is  to  the  general 
welfare  of  Christendom,  as  if  he  were  elect  of 
God  for  the  great  work."  When  Oxenstierna 
warned  him  not  to  expose  himself  so  rashly  in 
battle,  he  said:  "God  the  Almighty  lives,  though 
I    die."     As    for    his    statesmanship    he    met    as 


268         *  The  Story  of  Sweden 

an  equal  the  statecraft  of  Richelieu.  Napoleon 
said  of  him  he  had  revolutionized  the  art  of  war, 
and  his  military  reforms  were  adopted  by  all 
armies,  but  he  remained  a  comrade  of  his  soldiers, 
by  whose  side  he  fought  and  prayed.  He  was  the 
bravest  soldier  in  his  army.  He  shared  their 
hardships  and  their  humble  fare.  Scotch  and 
English  volunteers  flocked  to  his  standards  and 
formed  whole  regiments,  no  less  than  eighty- 
seven  British  officers,  mainly  Scotch,  serving  in 
his  army. T  The  earliest  account  of  the  death  of 
Gustavus  is  found  in  a  letter  written  on  Novem- 
ber 22nd,  sixteen  days  after  Lutzen,  by  an  English- 
man, Fleetwood,  to  his  father.  Leslie,  Ramsay, 
Sir  James  Spence,  Ruthwen,  Stewart,  Johnston 
served  Gustavus.  Hamilton,  Douglas,  Glad- 
stane,  and  others  remained  and  founded  families 
in  Sweden  after  the  war.  Drummond  of  Haw- 
thornden  wrote  an  elegy  on  Gustavus's  death. 
A  nobler  figure  never  stood  in  the  forefront  of  a 
nation's  life.  Tall  and  broad-shouldered,  with 
the  fairest  of  fair  hair — ilil  re  d'oro,"  the  Golden 
King,  the  Italians  called  him — he  loved  soft 
music  and  simple  songs,  and  would  sit,  lute  in 
hand,  in  his  camp  composing  religious  poetry. 
But  he  was  not  devoid  of  a  strong  temper,  and 
he  knew  it.  When  he  complained  of  the  hot 
temper  of  his  Scotch  officers,  he  added,  "but  then 


1  Rob.  Monro:  His  Expedition  with  the  Worthy  Scots  Regiment 
calVd  Mackey's,  London,  1637. 


GRAVE    OF    GUSTAVUS    ADOLPHUS,    KIDUAKHOLM    CHURCH, 
STOCKHOLM 


Gustavus  Adolphus 


269 


they  have  to  bear  with  me  likewise."  In  broad 
humanity  and  tolerance  he  was  centuries  ahead 
of  his  time.  But  idealist  as  he  was  he  made  sure 
of  his  ground  at  every  step  and  knew  the  skill 
and  resources  of  his  enemies. 


SIGNATURE   OF   GUSTAVUS   ADOLPHUS 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

SWEDEN  AS  A  GREAT  POWER 

A  master  mind  had  fallen,  but  his  spirit  lived  on 
in  warriors  and  statesmen,  trained  under  his  eyes 
who  continued  his  work.  The  ruler  of  Sweden 
till  Christina,  then  six  years  old,  came  of  age  in 
1644,  for  twelve  years,  1632-44,  was  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna,  a  genius  little  inferior  to  the  King 
himself.  Though  only  eleven  years  older  than 
Gustavus,  his  cool,  calm  prudence  guided  the  fiery 
genius  of  his  young  master.  "If  my  heat  did  not 
add  warmth  to  your  coldness,  we  should  all  freeze 
to  death,"  said  the  King.  "If  my  coldness  did 
not  cool  Your  Majesty's  heat,  Your  Majesty 
would  already  be  burnt  to  death,"  said  Oxen- 
stierna.  This  anecdote  is  characteristic  of  the 
intimate  way  in  which  the  two  great  men  worked 
together,  each  supplying  the  other's  deficiencies. 
Oxenstierna  had  studied  at  German  universities, 
and  Charles  IX,  who  discovered  him,  sent  him  on 
difficult  diplomatic  missions,  and  made  him  a 
State  Councillor  when  he  was  only  twenty-six 
years  old.  He  was  made  the  guardian  of  the 
royal  children  and  the  head  of  the  regency  which 

270 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        271 

was  to  govern  till  Gustavus  came  of  age.  Their 
lifelong  friendship  began  early,  and  the  first  act 
of  Gustavus  on  succeeding  to  the  throne  was  to 
make  Oxenstierna  Chancellor.  Gustavus  once 
declared  he  would  rather  lay  down  the  Crown 
than  govern  without  Oxenstierna.  Oxenstierna 
was  appointed  Legate  Plenipotentiary  in  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  The  Estates,  in  July,  1634, 
gave  a  new  Constitution  to  Sweden.  A  number 
of  Departments  of  State  (Kollegium)  were  estab- 
lished, subordinate  to  the  Council  and  Crown. 
Administration  was  centralized  and  made  more 
efficient.  Chancellor  Oxenstierna  had  to  spend 
most  of  his  time  in  Germany  to  keep  attached  to 
Sweden  the  German  Protestant  princes  and  direct 
Sweden's  various  armies.  Till  the  assassination 
of  Wallenstein,  February,  1634,  the  war  was 
conducted  with  little  energy  on  both  sides.  On 
September  6,  1634,  the  Swedish  main  army 
was  almost  annihilated  by  General  Gallas  at 
Nordlingen. 

Immediately  the  Protestant  princes  began  to 
desert  what  they  thought  the  sinking  ship.  Sweden 
made  a  twenty-six  years'  truce  with  Poland  at 
Stuhmsdorf,  September,  1635,  to  buy  off  one  foe, 
and  yielded  the  Prussian  customs.  Oxenstierna 
met  Louis  XIII  and  Richelieu,  acquired  enlarged 
subsidies  from  them,  and  appointed  John  Baner 
commander-in-chief;  he  soon  re-established  the 
Swedish  nimbus  of  invincibility  by  a  great  victory 
at  Wittstock  over  superior  forces  (October,  1636). 


272  The  Story  of  Sweden 

But  he  was  soon  enclosed  on  all  sides  by  Imperial 
armies,  each  of  which  was  superior  to  his.  For 
four  months  he  held  them  at  bay  in  his  entrenched 
camp  at  Torgau.  His  retreat  back  to  Pomerania 
with  fourteen  thousand  men,  on  his  heels  sixty 
thousand  men,  cutting  him  off  at  river-crossings, 
driving  him  into  a  corner,  while  he  continually 
outwitted  them,  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
marches  in  the  annals  of  Sweden.  This  was  in 
the  summer  of  1637;  thereupon  he  acted  on  the 
defence  in  Pomerania  for  over  a  twelvemonth, 
and  then  marched  south,  defeated  the  Imperialists 
in  Saxony  in  the  spring  of  1639,  and  took  up  his 
winter  quarters  in  Bohemia.  Meantime  the  French 
invaded  South  Germany,  and,  with  French  rein- 
forcements, he  invaded  Bavaria  and  nearly  cap- 
tured the  Emperor.  He  died  on  May  10,  1641, 
having  worn  himself  out  by  his  exertions.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Lennart  Torstensson.  He  invaded 
Silesia,  1642,  and  re-established  the  military 
supremacy  of  Sweden  by  the  victory  of  Breiten- 
feld,  November  2,  1642,  where  the  Imperialists 
lost  ten  thousand  men.  Next  spring,  1643,  he 
invaded  Moravia,  and  was  called  back,  when  on 
his  way  to  Vienna,  to  settle  matters  with  Den- 
mark.1 Christina,  after  the  Peace  of  Bromsebro, 
made  him  Count  and  granted  him  large  estates. 

Christina  came  of  age  on  December  8,  1644, 
her  eighteenth  birthday,  and  was  enthroned  as 
Queen  of  Sweden.     In  face  and  in  brilliant  quali- 

1  See  Denmark. 


AXEL    OXENSTIERNA,    CHANCELLOR    OF    SWEDEN 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power       273 

ties  of  mind  she  resembled  her  father,  though  she 
was  far  more  learned.  She  had  had  a  masculine 
education  and  been  instructed  in  politics  by  Oxen- 
stierna.  Her  library  was  one  of  the  finest  in 
Europe,  and  there  she  used  to  discuss  problems 
of  philosophy  for  hours  with  Descartes  starting  at 
five  in  the  morning.  Scholars  from  all  Europe 
flocked  round  her  and  were  pensioned  by  her. 
Yet  at  the  same  time  she  was  the  most  daring 
and  tireless  horsewoman  and  hunter  in  all  Sweden. 
Her  pride  of  intellect  was  such  that  she  despised 
her  own  sex  and  thought  marriage  intolerable 
slavery.  Her  inordinate  vanity  caused  her  to 
be  jealous  of  the  great  Oxenstierna. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  conducted  by  fits 
and  starts.  Torstensson,  after  overrunning  the 
Imperial  Crown-lands,  won  a  great  victory  over 
the  Imperialist  army  at  Jankovitz,  near  Prague, 
March  6,  1645,  the  general  staff  and  the  artillery 
falling  into  his  hands.  He  captured  the  bridge- 
head on  the  Danube  opposite  Vienna,  but  his 
army  was  too  small  to  take  the  city  by  assault. 
Rakoczy  of  Transylvania  joined  him  with  an 
army  which  brought  the  plague  into  his  camp, 
whereupon  Rakoczy  made  peace  with  the  Em- 
peror. Torstensson  suffered  so  much  from  gout 
that  in  December,  1645,  he  resigned  his  command 
to  Wrangel,  who  in  1646  joined  Turenne,  who  had 
been  campaigning  in  Bavaria.  The  mutual  jeal- 
ousy of  the  French  and  Swedish  generals  hindered 
and  hammered  their  campaigns.  Meanwhile  an- 
18 


274  The  Story  of  Sweden 

other  Swedish  army  captured  Prague,  when  the 
Codex  Argenteus  (the  Gospels  in  Gothic)  was  sent 
to  Uppsala  University  with  other  spoils  of  war. 
Soon  after  peace  was  concluded.  The  peace 
negotiations  had  begun  in  March,  1642,  at  Osna- 
briick,  between  Sweden  and  the  Emperor,  at 
Minister  between  France  and  the  Emperor,  to 
prevent  quarrels  about  precedence  between  the 
negotiators.  The  congress  did  not  actually 
begin  till  April,  1645.  The  Catholic  negotiators 
resided  at  Minister,  the  Protestants  at  Osnabriick. 
Sweden  was  represented  by  Oxenstierna's  son 
and  by  Salvius,  who  was  supported  by  Christina, 
who  wished  to  hurry  the  negotiations,  while 
Oxenstierna  wanted  to  protract  them  and  hold 
out  for  better  terms.  The  quarrel  was  bitter, 
not  only  between  the  two  plenipotentiaries,  but 
also  between  Queen  and  Chancellor.  Finally 
on  October  24,  1648,  the  Peace  of  Westphalia 
was  signed  simultaneously  at  the  two  cities. 
Sweden's  share  was:  Upper  Pomerania  with  the 
islands  Riigen,  Wollin,  and  Usedom  and  a  strip 
of  Lower  Pomerania  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Oder, 
including  Stettin  and  certain  other  towns.  The 
city  of  Wismar  and  districts  near  it.  The  secu- 
larized bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Warden.  Five 
million  rixdollars.  Full  civil  and  religious  liberty 
to  be  granted  to  all  German  Protestants.  Sweden's 
German  possessions  were  to  be  held  as  fiefs  of 
the  Empire,  and  Sweden  therefore  could  vote  on 
their  behalf  in  the  German  Diet.     Sweden  and 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        275 

France  were  to  be  joint  guarantors  of  this  peace 
and  to  carry  out  its  provisions.  Thus,  though 
the  territories  won  by  Sweden  after  eighteen 
years  of  war  were  small  in  extent,  yet  she  now 
held  the  mouths  of  the  three  greatest  rivers  in 
North  Germany,  the  Oder,  the  Elbe,  and  the 
Weser. 

Charles  X  Gustavus  (1656-60),  son  of  the  Count 
Palatine  of  Zweibriicken  and  Catherine,  sister  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  was  born  in  1622.  He  served 
as  a  volunteer  under  Torstensson,  from  whom 
he  learnt  the  art  of  war.  He  was  a  suitor 
for  the  hand  of  Christina.  She  would  not  marry 
him,  but  appointed  him  commander-in-chief  of 
her  armies  in  Germany,  shortly  before  the  Peace 
of  Westphalia,  and  as  Swedish  plenipotentiary 
at  the  executive  congress  which  followed  it,  he 
became  an  expert  in  the  tortuous  ways  of  diplo- 
macy. Christina,  importuned  by  matrimonial 
projects,  had  him  proclaimed  as  her  successor  in 
1649,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Council 
and  Oxenstierna.  Popular  discontent  with  the 
Queen  made  his  position  as  heir-presumptive 
precarious,  and  he  isolated  himself  in  the  isle  of 
Oland  till  Christina  abdicated  (June  6,  1654).  The 
same  day  he  was  crowned  King  in  the  cathedral 
as  Charles  X  Gustavus.  He  married  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  Duke  of  Holstein  Gottorp  in  order  to 
have  an  ally  against  Denmark.  Sweden  was  in 
dire  financial  distress  owing  to  the  reckless  expendi- 
ture of  Christina.     The  nobles  were  curbed  by 


276  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Charles,  who  at  the  parliament  of  1655  proposed 
that  a  commission  should  hold  an  inquiry  about 
the  alienated  Crown-lands  and  a  war  subsidy  should 
be  levied  on  all  classes  proportionately.  A  secret 
committee  presided  over  by  himself  was  won  over 
by  him  in  three  days  to  the  belief  that  a  war  with 
Poland  was  a  necessity  for  Sweden.  He  sailed  in 
July,  1655,  with  fifty  thousand  men  and  fifty 
warships.  In  a  few  weeks  he  had  occupied  War- 
saw and  the  whole  of  Great  Poland.  Cracow, 
the  Coronation  city,  fell  after  a  siege  of  two  months, 
valiantly  defended  by  Czarniecki.  King  John 
Casimir  lived  as  a  fugitive  in  Silesia.  Poland 
was  conquered  and  blotted  out  from  the  map  of 
Europe.  Suddenly  the  tide  turned.  A  Swedish 
army  besieged  the  fortified  monastery  of  Czen- 
stochowa,  October-December,  1655;  it  was  de- 
fended for  seventy  days  by  seventy  monks  and 
150  soldiers,  and,  through  a  miracle  wrought  by 
the  Mother  of  God  of  Czenstochowa,  as  the  Poles 
believed,  the  Swedes  were  driven  off  with  heavy 
loss.  The  national  and  religious  spirit  of  the 
Polish  people  burst  into  flame  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land  as  they  learnt  of  this 
wonder.  King  John  Casimir  returned  from  his 
exile  early  in  1656  and  put  the  reorganized  army 
under  the  command  of  Czarniecki.  Charles  first 
compelled  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  to  become 
his  ally,  and  then  tried  to  subdue  the  Poles  anew. 
It  was  a  guerilla  war  with  endless  pursuits  and 
marches  over  a  vast  territory  in  winter.       He 


CHARLICS    X 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        277 

made  a  masterly  retreat  from  Galicia  to  Warsaw 
with  a  few  thousand  men  across  marshes  and 
rivers  guarded  by  superior  forces.  Warsaw  sur- 
rendered to  the  Poles,  after  its  Swedish  garrison 
was  reduced  from  4000  to  500.  The  joint  forces 
of  Charles  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  18,000 
men,  defeated  the  Polish  army  numbering  100,000 
men  in  a  three  days'  battle  at  Warsaw  (July  18, 
19,  20,  1656)  and  reoccupied  the  city.  But  though 
Charles  granted  the  Elector  the  full  sovereignty 
over  East  Prussia — thus  laying  the  foundation 
of  the  kingdom  of  Prussia — and  allied  himself 
with  Rakoczy,  Prince  of  Transylvania,  yet  their 
help  was  of  little  value  and  he  made  no  headway. 
He  could  not  break  the  spirit  of  the  Poles,  when 
suddenly  Denmark's  declaration  of  war  against 
Sweden  (June  1,  1657)  extricated  him  from  his 
difficulties.  He  could  now  leave  Poland  with 
honour.  He  marched  with  the  lightning  speed 
of  Torstensson,  at  the  head  of  eight  thousand 
veterans,  into  Holstein.  The  Danish  troops 
retreated  and  dispersed.  The  main  army  took 
refuge  in  the  fortress,  Frederiksodde  (now 
Fredericia),  on  the  Little  Belt.  The  duchies  and 
Jutland  were  now  occupied  by  the  Swedes,  but 
at  sea  the  Danes  drove  their  fleet  back  into 
Wismar  after  a  two  days'  battle.  The  Duke  of 
Gottorp  openly  sided  with  the  Swedes.  In  the 
night  of  October  23-24,  Wrangel,  at  the  head  of 
four  thousand  Swedes,  stormed  Frederiksodde, 
which  was  defended  by  six  thousand  Danes,  in 


2/8  The  Story  of  Sweden 

one  hour  and  a  half,  taking  more  prisoners  than 
his  own  men  numbered,  with  stores  and  artillery. 
In  January,  1658,  the  Emperor  and  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg  joined  Poland  against  Sweden. 
Charles  was  prevented  from  crossing  to  the  islands 
by  the  Danes  who  were  masters  at  sea.  Then 
the  severe  frost  in  December,  1657,  and  January, 
1658,  bridged  the  sea  for  him.  The  sea  was 
covered  with  a  solid  bridge  of  ice,  and  the  scouts 
who  tested  its  firmness  every  night  found  it  would 
bear  save  only  a  small  rent  five  feet  broad,  which 
they  bridged  over  by  planks  and  hurdles.  On 
January  30,  1658,  it  was  calculated  that  the  ice 
would  be  strong  enough  to  carry  the  army.  The 
Swedes  made  for  the  peninsula  of  Iversnaes,  in 
Funen,  via  the  island  of  Brandso.  They  led  their 
horses  as  far  apart  as  possible  where  the  ice  was 
weak  and  galloped  across  the  safe  parts.  Safety 
lay  in  rushing  on  since  the  danger  behind  was 
greater  than  in  front.  Two  companies  sank 
through  the  ice,  fighting  the  Danes  who  barred 
their  passage.  The  whole  island  of  Funen  was 
occupied  by  Charles,  who  wanted  to  march  across 
the  sixteen  miles  broad  Great  Belt.  One  night 
the  daring  Dahlberg  came  back  from  his  journeys 
on  the  ice  and  declared  he  could  take  the  army 
across  it  via  Langeland,  Laaland,  and  Falster,  a 
more  roundabout  but  safer  route,  with  a  shorter 
traject  across  ice  than  the  direct  route  to  Sjael- 
land.  At  a  council  of  war  summoned  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  all  the  assembled  generals  dissuaded 


DAHLBERG 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        279 

from  running  this  extreme  risk.  Charles  hesi- 
tated, but  at  last  resolutely  accepted  Dahlberg's 
plan  and  explained:  "Now  we  shall  talk  together 
in  Swedish,  brother  Frederick!"  The  army 
started  on  the  night  of  February  5th,  and  reached 
Laaland  next  afternoon.  The  men  waded  through 
deep  sludge  and  the  ice  looked  very  rotten  where 
cavalry  had  passed.  Terlon,  the  French  Ambas- 
sador with  Charles,  says:  "It  was  a  horror  to 
walk  at  night  across  the  frozen  sea;  the  horses' 
tramping  had  thawed  the  snow  so  that  the  water 
rose  one  or  two  feet  on  the  ice;  every  moment  we 
feared  to  find  the  sea  open  somewhere  to  engulf 
us."  Dahlberg  showed  the  way.  On  February 
8th  Charles  reached  Falster,  on  February  nth 
Sjaelland.  The  elements  had  helped  him  to 
accomplish  a  deed  of  daring  unique  in  history. 
" Natures  hoc  debuit  uni"  he  inscribed  on  the 
medal  struck  to  commemorate  it.  Frederick  III 
sent  plenipotentiaries  to  sue  for  peace  at  any  price. 
They  dared  not  accept  the  hard  conditions  of 
Charles,  but  at  last  signed  the  peace  preliminaries 
at  Taastrup,  near  Copenhagen. 

By  the  terms  of  the  Peace  of  Roskilde,  February 
26,  1658,  Denmark  ceded  Scania,  Halland, 
Blekinge,  and  Bahuslan — which  have  been  Swedish 
ever  since — the  province  of  Trondhjem  and  the 
island  of  Bornholm.  Hostile  fleets  were  to  be 
excluded  from  the  Baltic.  The  Duke  of  Gottorp 
was  to  be  free  of  Danish  suzerainty.  His  title 
and  estates  were  restored  to  Ulfeld,  the  traitor, 


280  The  Story  of  Sweden 

who  was  one  of  the  peace  commissioners.  Sub- 
sequently the  King  of  Denmark  entertained  the 
victor  at  a  sumptuous  banquet  that  lasted  three 
days. 

Charles  convened  the  Estates  and  Council  at 
Gothenburg  to  deliberate  on  the  war  in  Germany 
and  Poland.  Denmark  was  unwilling  to  assist 
Sweden  in  preventing  the  entrance  of  a  Dutch 
fleet  into  the  Baltic.  Charles  repented  that  he 
had  not  annexed  a  country  which  was  his  secret 
enemy.  He  suddenly  landed  with  an  army  in 
Sjaelland  without  declaring  war.  Holland  now 
became  openly  his  enemy.  The  patriotism  of 
the  Danes  was  roused.  With  the  courage  of 
despair  the  citizens  of  Copenhagen  repaired  their 
walls  and  prepared  to  defend  themselves  to  the 
uttermost.  Kronborg  surrendered.  In  October 
a  Dutch  fleet  approached  to  bring  succour  to 
the  sorely  pressed  Danes.  After  six  hours'  ob- 
stinate contest  the  Swedish  fleet,  under  Wrangel, 
who  acted  alternately  as  general  and  admiral, 
was  compelled  to  retire  to  Landskrona.  Copen- 
hagen received  the  Dutch  fleet  with  transports  of 
joy.  Charles  encamped  ten  miles  from  the  town, 
after  raising  the  siege.  An  army  of  Poles, 
Austrians,  and  Brandenburgers  occupied  Jutland. 
Trondhjem  and  Bornholm  freed  themselves  from 
their  Swedish  garrisons.  When  the  winter  frosts 
set  in  and  ice  rendered  the  fleet  useless,  Charles 
determined  to  storm  the  city.  On  the  night  of 
February  n,  1659,  the  Swedes,  with  white  shirts 


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Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        281 

over  their  dress  to  prevent  their  being  visible  in 
the  deep  snow,  scaled  the  slippery,  icy  ramparts. 
Their  plans  had  been  betrayed  to  the  Danes,  who 
hurled  them  back  in  a  murderous  struggle;  women 
poured  boiling  water  on  the  Swedes,  who  withdrew 
with  a  loss  of  1500  men.  In  the  spring  of  1659 
an  English  fleet  under  Montague  arrived  in  the 
Baltic  to  watch  the  Dutch  and  enforce  an  armed 
mediation  between  the  belligerents.  Oliver  Crom- 
well, and  after  him  his  son  Richard,  were  friendly 
to  Sweden.  The  Dutch  and  English  ambassadors 
(one  of  them  was  Algernon  Sidney)  called  on 
Charles  in  his  camp,  and  he  was  very  angry  at 
the  pretensions  of  the  two  republics  to  dictate 
terms.  Montague  was  called  back  to  take  part 
in  the  Restoration  (of  Charles  II)  in  England, 
and  the  Dutch  transported  the  army  of  the  Allies 
to  Funen,  where  it  defeated  the  Swedish  troops 
at  Nyborg,  General  Stenbock  escaping  in  a  boat. 
Charles  did  not  lose  courage,  but  convened  the 
Estates  at  Gothenburg  to  obtain  men  and  money 
for  an  invasion  into  Norway.  During  these  pre- 
parations he  was  seized  with  a  fever,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  February  13,  1660. 
On  his  death-bed  he  appointed  a  regency  for  his 
four-year-old  son,  Charles  (XI),  and  advised 
them  to  make  peace  with  Sweden's  enemies. 
Peace  was  concluded  with  Poland  at  Oliva,  April, 
1660;  this  ended  a  war  of  succession  of  sixty  years 
between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  branches 
of  the  House  of  Vasa.     John  Casimir  of  Poland 


2S2  The  Story  of  Sweden 

renounced  his  claim  to  the  Swedish  crown,  and 
ceded  Livonia.  The  Treaty  of  Copenhagen  with 
Denmark  (June,  1660)  confirmed  the  Peace  of 
Roskilde,  except  that  the  province  of  Trondhjem 
and  the  isle  of  Bornholm  were  restored  to  the 
Danes.  The  Peace  of  Kardis  put  an  end  to  the 
war  with  Russia,  which  restored  her  conquests. 
Sweden  had  reached  her  natural  frontiers,  and  in 
half  a  century  the  conquered  Danish  provinces 
became  denationalized  and  Swedish. 

The  Regency  which  governed  Sweden  (1660- 
75)  was  composed  of  conservative  aristocrats, 
who  neglected  the  administration  of  the  country 
and  were  grossly  corrupt.  They  accepted  secret 
annual  subsidies  from  foreign  Powers  for  their 
support,  always  favouring  the  highest  bidder. 
Charles  XI  came  of  age  at  seventeen  in  December, 
1672.  The  Regents  had  utterly  neglected  his 
education,  and  he  spent  most  of  his  time  in  manly 
sports,  often  in  bear  hunting.  Louis  XIV,  by 
holding  out  hopes  of  increased  subsidies,  induced 
De  la  Gardie,  the  most  important  member  of  the 
regency,  to  send  a  Swedish  army  of  thirteen 
thousand  men  against  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg. 
In  June,  1575,  the  Elector  defeated  the  Swedish 
army,  reduced  by  sickness  to  seven  thousand  men, 
under  the  old  field-marshal  Wrangel,  at  Rathenow 
and  at  Fehrbellin.  It  is  true  these  defeats  by  a 
superior  force  were  only  skirmishes,  but  the  invin- 
cibility of  Swedish  troops  ceased  to  be  believed 
in.     The   criminal   neglect   of   the   Regency   was 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power        2S3 

seen  by  the  young  King,  and  a  commission  was 
appointed  by  his  Coronation  Parliament  to  inquire 
into  their  conduct. 

Meanwhile  the  Emperor,  Denmark,  and  the 
Netherlands  declared  war  on  Sweden,  and  the 
young  King,  not  yet  twenty,  now  showed  his 
sterling  qualities,  working  single-handed  with 
his  secretaries  to  save  the  country.  The  Swedish 
fleet,  badly  equipped  as  it  was,  was  defeated  off 
Oland  on  June  1,  1676,  by  the  combined  Dano- 
Dutch  fleet.  The  Danish  army,  under  Chris- 
tian V,  occupied  Scania,  whose  inhabitants,  still 
Danish  in  sympathies,  raised  a  guerilla  war  against 
the  Swedes.  The  first  gleam  of  light  was  the 
annihilation  of  a  Danish  division  of  three  thousand 
men  in  Hall  and  by  Charles  himself.  During  the 
autumn  of  1676  the  Swedish  army  suffered  much 
from  hunger  and  cold,  and  dwindled  to  half  its 
number.  During  the  night  of  December  4,  1676, 
Charles  raced  the  Danish  army  for  the  possession  of 
a  ridge  of  hills  north  of  Lund.  Victorious  here 
he  hurried  back  to  help  his  left  and  centre,  over- 
powered by  the  Danes,  and  turned  the  defeat  into 
a  brilliant  victory.  About  one  half  of  both  the 
opposing  armies  lay  dead  on  the  battlefield  after 
this  obstinate  engagement.  Charles  XI,  who 
had  fought  at  the  head  of  his  men  ever  since, 
kept  the  anniversary  which  gave  him  back  Scania 
and  restored  to  Sweden  her  nimbus  of  invinci- 
bility by  shutting  himself  up  in  his  closet  in  prayer. 
In  1677  the   Swedish   fleet  was  twice  beaten  by 


284  The  Story  of  Sweden 

the  Danish  naval  hero,  Nils  Juel,  who  dominated 
the  Baltic.  Charles  was  successful  in  recovering 
Scania,  while  the  German  possessions  of  Sweden 
were  wholly  lost.  Louis  XIV,  at  the  peace  con- 
gress of  Nimeguen  (1677-79),  dictated  terms, 
and  in  1679  forced  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
to  retrocede  all  his  conquests  to  Sweden  except 
a  small  strip  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Oder.  Den- 
mark, too,  was  compelled  to  restore  all  her  con- 
quests, first  by  the  Peace  of  Fontainebleau,  then 
at  Lund.  The  negotiations  were  ended  by  a 
treaty  of  defensive  alliance  between  Denmark, 
Norway,  and  Sweden.  This  was  owing  to  the 
Swedish  statesman,  Johan  Gyllenstierna,  who  also 
brought  about  the  marriage  of  Charles  XI  to  the 
Danish  princess,  Ulrica  Leonora.  Gyllenstierna 
died  in  1680,  and  Charles  XI  proceeded  to  carry 
out  his  ideas — to  save  Sweden  from  becoming 
the  needy  satellite  of  Louis  XIV,  and  to  turn  it 
into  a  centralized  monarchy. 

Parliament  met  in  October,  1680,  and  one  of 
its  first  acts  was  to  decide  that  a  commission 
nominated  by  the  King  should  try  the  Regents. 
The  Estate  of  Peasants  then  petitioned  the  King 
for  the  recovery  of  Crown-lands  from  the  aristo- 
cracy. The  Estates  of  Burgesses  and  of  Clergy 
joined  them,  but  the  Estate  of  Nobles  debated  the 
motion  without  result  until  it  was  declared  carried 
over  their  heads  by  their  speaker.  All  countships, 
baronies,  domains,  and  manors,  producing  an  an- 
nual rent  of  more  than  £70,  reverted  to  the  Crown. 


Sweden  as  a  Great  Power       285 

Next  the  Estates  declared  that  the  Council  of 
State  shared  the  guilt  of  the  Regents;  and,  in 
answer  to  the  King's  inquiry,  stated  that  he  was 
not  bound  by  the  Constitution  but  only  by  the 
laws,  was  not  bound  to  consult  the  Council,  but 
was  a  sovereign  lord,  responsible  to  God  alone  for 
his  actions.  The  King  r  changed  the  title  of  the 
Council  of  State  to  Royal  Council,  implying 
that  they  were  henceforth  the  King's  servants, 
not  his  colleagues.  Sweden  did  not  become  an 
absolute  monarchy  by  force  and  fraud  as  Den- 
mark in  1660,  and  the  Estates  continued  to  meet 
and  to  be  consulted.  The  Parliament  of  1682 
declared  that  the  King  had  the  right  to  grant 
and  take  back  fiefs,  at  his  own  will.  The  Estates 
also  gave  to  him  the  right  to  interpret  and  amend 
the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  kingdom.  Possessed 
of  absolute  power,  Charles  XI  set  himself  to  con- 
struct a  new  system  on  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
The  Commission  of  State  found  the  Regents  and 
the  Council  guilty  of  extravagance  and  sentenced 
them  to  pay  the  Crown  a  huge  sum.  The  com- 
mission for  the  recovery  of  Crown-lands  was  turned 
into  a  permanent  department  of  State  under  the 
personal  supervision  of  the  King.  The  inquisition 
into  claims  was  harsh  and  rigorous.  Any  owner  of 
landed  estates  might  be  called  upon  to  furnish 
proof  that  they  had  not  at  some  time  belonged  to 
the  Crown.  Yet  it  was  not  till  1690  that  Sweden 
could  actually  pay  its  way.  Charles  substituted 
an  extended  military  tenure  of  land  for  conscrip- 


286  The  Story  of  Sweden 

lion  and  created  a  standing  army  of  thirty-eight 
thousand  men.  He  provided  Sweden  with  a  huge 
arsenal  at  Karlskrona  and  a  fleet  of  forty-three 
men-of-war.  All  the  departments  of  State  were 
reconstructed  and  rendered  more  efficient.  For- 
eign policy  he  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Count 
Oxenstierna,  who  supported  Holland  and  England 
against  the  overweening  ambition  of  Louis  XIV. 
After  the  death  of  his  Queen,  Charles  XI,  broken 
by  his  incessant  labours,  began  to  fail  in  health, 
and  died,  forty  years  old,  in  1697.  He  worked 
himself  to  death;  travelling  incognito,  dressed  in 
his  grey  cloak,  he  looked  after  the  efficiency  of 
his  officials  all  over  Sweden,  in  person. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

CHARLES   XII 

Charles  XII  was  born  on  June  17,  1682.  He 
had  been  most  carefully  educated  and  trained, 
mind  and  body.  At  eleven  years  old  he  shot  his 
first  bear,  and  he  had  a  genius  for  languages  and 
mathematics.  His  father  took  him  everywhere 
and  his  character  was  deeply  influenced  by  him. 
The  Regents  appointed  by  his  father  to  rule  dur- 
ing his  minority  governed  Sweden  only  for  seven 
months.  In  November,  1697,  the  Estates  asked 
him  to  assume  full  sovereignty.  He  not  only 
assented  to  this,  but  at  his  coronation  he  omitted 
the  coronation  oath  and  placed  the  crown  on  his 
head  himself,  as  a  mark  of  absolute  autocracy. 
One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  abolish  judicial  torture, 
against  the  advice  of  his  Council.  Meanwhile 
a  Livonian  nobleman,  Patkul,  had  been  secretly 
forming  a  league  against  Sweden.  In  the  autumn 
of  1699  an  offensive  alliance  for  the  partition  and 
dismemberment  of  Sweden  was  concluded  by 
Denmark,  Saxony,  and  Russia.  A  Danish  army 
advanced  against  the  ally  of  Sweden,  the  Duke  of 
Gottorp,  and  the  Saxons  and  Russians  invaded 

287 


288  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Sweden's  possessions  on  the  Continent.  The 
Danish  fleet  protected  Sjaelland,  but  by  passing 
through  the  eastern  channel  of  the  Sound,  held 
to  be  unnavigable  by  sailors,  Charles  XII  was 
able  to  unite  his  ships  with  an  Anglo-Dutch 
squadron.  Superior  at  sea  to  the  Danish  fleet, 
hemmed  in  at  Copenhagen,  he  landed  a  few  miles 
north  of  that  city.  Denmark,  alarmed,  made 
peace  at  Travendal,  August  18,  1700,  conceding 
full  sovereignty  to  the  Duke  of  Gottorp,  paying 
him  an  indemnity  and  promising  never  henceforth 
to  join  the  enemies  of  Sweden.  In  the  autumn 
Tsar  Peter  laid  siege  to  Narva  in  Ingria  with  - 
40,000  men.  With  less  than  8000  men  Charles 
hurried  to  its  relief  against  the  advice  of  his 
generals.  During  his  long  march  through  boggy 
and  desolate  country  he  captured  a  pass  defended 
by  6000  horsemen  with  400  Swedes.  It  was  on 
November  20th  that  the  tired  Swedes  immediately 
on  their  arrival  threw  themselves  on  the  Russian 
entrenchments  at  2  P.M.  in  a  raging  snowstorm. 
Peter  had  left  the  night  before,  leaving  a  foreigner 
in  command.  At  night  the  camp  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Swedes,  whose  prisoners  far  outnumbered 
themselves.  This  great  victory  spread  the  fame* 
of  Charles  over  Europe,  but  it  inspired  him  with 
contempt  of  the  Russians  who  would  not  make  a 
stand  and  of  Tsar  Peter.  He  now  cleared  Livonia^" 
and  Courland  of  the  enemy,  and  in  1702  deposed 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  from  the  Polish  throne, 
defeated  the  united  Poles  and  Saxons  at  Klissow, 


CHARLES   XII 
By  Wedekind 


Charles  XII  289 

and  captured  the  fortified  coronation  city,  Cracow, 
with  only  a  cane  in  his  hand,  by  sheer  audacity. 
In  1704  the  Elector  was  formally  deposed  and  a 
scratch  assembly,  manipulated  by  Count  Arvid 
Horn,  elected  Stanislaus  Leszcynski,  the  Pala- 
tine of  Posen,  King  of  Poland.  After  many 
vicissitudes  he  was  crowned  in  1705,  but  the 
Swedes  were  righting  all  the  time  to  uphold  his 
unstable  throne.  Charles  entered  Saxony  in 
August,  1706,  about  the  time  of  a  crisis  in  the 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  Marlborough  was 
sent  by  the  Allies  to  find  out  if  Charles  was  likely 
to  join  France,  but  found  that  he  was  going 
to  invade  Russia.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  was 
compelled  to  sign  the  Peace  of  Altranstadt;  he 
resigned  the  Polish  Crown,  renounced  every  anti- 
Swedish  alliance,  and  handed  over  Patkul,  the  arch- 
conspirator,  who  was  quartered  alive.  Charles 
stayed  a  whole  year  in  Saxony,  partly  owing  to  a 
quarrel  with  the  Emperor,  who  oppressed  the 
Protestants  of  Silesia,  whose  religious  liberty  was 
guaranteed  in  the  Treaty  of  Osnabruck.  Charles 
demanded  redress  so  peremptorily  that  the  Allies 
induced  the  Emperor  to  yield  all  his  demands, 
fearing  he  might  go  to  war  on  the  side  of  France. 

In  August,  1707,  he  left  Saxony.  It  was  high 
time,  for  Russia  had  with  overwhelming  odds 
overrun  Ingria  and  Livonia,  and  Tsar  Peter  had 
laid  the  foundations  of  Petersburg.  During  the 
winter  of  1707-8  he  advanced  on  frozen  roads 
towards  Moscow,  and  in  July  he  attacked  the 


290  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Russians,  strongly  entrenched  behind  a  river, 
and  won  the  battle  of  Holowczyn,  his  last  victory 
won  in  the  field.  Peter's  plan  was  steadily  to 
hide  all  corn  and  cattle  in  the  trackless  waste,  to 
burn  and  destroy  everything  that  could  be  useful 
to  the  invader.  It  was  clear  that  Moscow  could 
not  be  reached,  and  his  generals  advised  Charles 
to  await  Lewenhaupt  with  reinforcements  and 
stores,  but  he  marched  southwards  to  join  the 
Hetman  of  the  Dnieper  Cossacks,  Mazeppa,  who 
had  promised  him  one  hundred  thousand  horsemen 
and  large  stores  of  provisions.  Now  one  disaster 
succeeded  another.  Lewenhaupt  joined  Charles 
empty-handed,  having  been  defeated  in  a  two 
days'  battle  against  fourfold  odds  at  Lesna, 
where  he  lost  all  his  stores.  Mazeppa  joined  him 
as  a  fugitive  with  thirteen  hundred  attendants. 
The  Cossack  capital  and  country  had  been  turned 
into  a  charred  wilderness  by  the  Tsar.  Now  the 
elements  joined  the  Russians  in  fighting  the  in- 
vincible Swedes,  engulfed  in  a  trackless  wilder- 
ness. The  winter  of  1708-9  was  the  coldest 
known  for  a  century.  Already  by  November 
firewood  would  not  burn  in  the  open,  and  the 
Swedes  warmed  themselves  over  fires  of  straw. 
But  the  worst  was  to  overtake  the  devoted  and 
dwindling  host  in  the  exposed,  endless  steppes  of 
Ukraine.  In  January,  1709,  wine  and  spirits 
froze,  birds  on  the  wing  fell  dead,  and  many  sol- 
diers lost  hands,  feet,  ears,  noses.  Yet  "though 
earth,  sky,  and  air  were  against  us,"  they  followed 


Charles  XII  291 

blindly  their  leader,  whom  they  looked  on  as 
divinely  inspired.  He  twice  defeated  tenfold 
odds  of  Russians  with  a  few  hundred  men,  and 
single-handed  upheld  the  spirit  of  his  men,  who 
were  on  the  point  of  succumbing  to  their  terrible 
hardships.  His  army  was  reduced  to  less  than 
one  half,  or  nearly  twenty  thousand  men,  when 
the  spring  floods  made  it  impossible  to  march 
farther  for  two  or  three  months.  In  May,  1709, 
he  began  to  lay  siege  to  the  fortress  of  Poltava, 
but  lack  of  gunpowder  hampered  operations. 
Peter  with  eighty  thousand  Russians  lay  on  the 
other  side  of  the  River  Vorskla,  but  dared  not  cross 
it  until  he  heard  that  Charles  had  been  wounded 
in  the  foot  by  a  bullet,  when  he  entrenched  him- 
self on  the  Swedish  side  of  the  river.  At  a  council 
of  war  Charles  decided  to  attack  the  Russian 
entrenchments  on  June  27,  1709,  Rehnskold 
taking  the  command  because  of  his  wound,  while 
Charles  was  borne  on  a  litter  in  the  hottest  melee. 
The  Swedes  carried  everything  before  them  on 
both  wings,  but  owing  to  a  misunderstanding  the 
flower  of  the  army,  the  Guards,  were  annihilated 
by  the  French  guns  of  the  Tsar,  which  could  fire 
five  times  to  the  Swedes'  once.  Lacking  powder, 
the  Swedes  were  mown  down  as  they  tried  to 
come  to  close  quarters.  Charles  with  fifteen 
hundred  men  escaped  to  Turkish  territory,  while 
fourteen  thousand  men,  exhausted  and  starved, 
surrendered  at  Perevoloczna  on  the  Dnieper. 
On  learning   of   the   disaster  at   Poltava,   the 


292  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Elector  of  Saxony  formed  a  new  alliance  with 
Denmark  in  order  to  confine  Sweden  within  her 
boundaries,  and  the  Poles  rose  against  Leszcynski, 
who  fled  to  Swedish  Pomerania.  The  Danes 
invaded  Scania  in  November,  1709,  but  Count 
Magnus  Stenbock  with  hastily  collected  peasant 
levies  defeated  the  Danes  in  the  battle  of  Helsing- 
borg,  March  10,  1710,  and  drove  their  army  out 
of  Scania.  Meanwhile  the  Tsar  took  the  Swedish 
possessions  on  the  Eastern  Baltic  foot  by  foot, 
invaded  Finland,  and  seized  Viborg.  He  de- 
manded the  extradition  of  Charles  from  the  Sultan, 
who  held  him  in  high  honour.  Swedes  and  Rus- 
sians vied  with  each  other  to  bribe  the  Grand 
Vizier  till  Peter  declared  war,  March,  1710.  He 
ventured  too  far  south,  and  was  surrounded  with 
38,000  men  in  July,  1710,  by  190,000  Turks  on 
the  banks  of  the  Pruth.  The  Grand  Vizier  who 
followed  a  plan  of  campaign  drawn  up  by  Charles, 
allowed  Peter  to  make  the  Peace  of  Pruth,  July 
22,  1 710.  Peter  was  to  allow  the  King  of  Sweden 
a  free  passage  to  his  dominions,  evacuate  Poland, 
and  demolish  two  fortresses.  Charles  stayed  on, 
and  induced  the  Sultan  to  declare  war  on  Russia  • 
in  171 1  and  in  1712,  with  little  result.  The  Turks 
now  wanted  to  get  rid  of  Charles,  and  ten  thousand 
men  attacked  him  with  his  few  hundred  men  in 
his  camp  at  Bender,  and  after  an  incredible  re- 
sistance took  him  prisoner  by  burning  the  house 
over  his  head.  Still  he  stayed  on,  waiting  for 
an  escort  to  take  him  back,  until  in  response  to 


Charles  XII  293 

despairing  appeals  from  Sweden  he  left  on  Septem- 
ber 20,  1 7 14.  Riding  on  horseback  day  and  night, 
without  changing  his  clothes,  he  arrived  at  mid- 
night, November  22,  1714,  at  Stralsund;  his  top- 
boots,  which  had  not  been  removed  for  sixteen 
days,  had  to  be  cut  off  his  legs.  Inspired  and 
animated  by  his  example,  soldiers  and  citizens 
held  out  for  more  than  a  twelvemonth  against 
overwhelming  forces  of  the  Danes,  Prussians, 
Saxons,  and  Russians  in  superhuman  endeavour, 
until  Stralsund  was  a  heap  of  ruins.  Just  before 
Christmas,  171 5,  Charles  escaped  in  a  small  boat 
past  the  batteries  and  fleets  of  the  Allies  to  Sweden, 
whereupon  the  town  surrendered.  The  Elector 
of  Hanover  had  in  the  autumn  of  1 7 14  ascended 
the  throne  of  England  as  George  I,  and  he  did 
not  scruple  to  buy  from  Denmark  the  Swedish 
bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Werden,  which  she  had 
occupied,  for  six  hundred  thousand  rixdollars. 
Sweden  was  to  be  dismembered  by  a  league 
between  England,  Hanover,  Prussia,  Saxony,  Den- 
mark, and  Russia.  Tsar  Peter  arrived  at  Copen- 
hagen with  thirty  thousand  Russians  in  July, 
1 7 16,  in  order  to  invade  Scania  with  his  Danish 
ally,  under  cover  of  the  Danish,  Russian,  and 
English  fleets.  The  lion  was  at  bay,  with  twenty 
thousand  men  in  his  entrenched  camp  in  Scania, 
and  neither  Danes  nor  Russians  were  anxious  to 
beard  him  in  his  den.  Long  delays  in  attacking 
him  led  to  mutual  suspicions.  Russians  and 
Danes  suspected  each  other  of  a  secret  under- 


294  The  Story  of  Sweden 

standing  with  Charles.  The  Tsar  postponed  the 
expedition,  and  Denmark  was  much  pleased  to 
get  rid  of  its  troublesome  guests.  George  I,  on 
the  other  hand,  saw  in  it  Muscovite  designs  on 
North  Germany,  and  both  he  and  the  Tsar  tried 
to  circumvent  each  other  by  making  separate 
terms  with  Sweden. 

Charles  had  now  in  his  service  the  astute  and 
audacious  Baron  Goertz,  a  former  minister  of  the 
Duke  of  Holstein  Gottorp.  He  believed  with 
his  master  that  though  the  battle  was  lost  there 
was  time  to  win  a  new  one,  in  spite  of  the  exhaus- 
tion of  Sweden,  and  he  skilfully  played  on  the 
mutual  distrust  of  England  and  Russia.  In 
January,  1 71 7,  the  Swedish  Ambassador  in  Lon- 
don, Count  Gyllenborg,  was  arrested;  from  cor- 
respondence seized  (now  included  in  the  Stuart 
papers  in  Windsor  Castle)  it  appeared  that  the 
Jacobites  had  arranged  with  Goertz  that  Charles 
should  invade  England  "to  maintain  English 
liberties  and  reduce  George  (I)  to  be  nothing  more 
than  an  Elector  of  Hanover."  The  Swedish  Am- 
bassador in  Paris  was  one  of  the  conspirators. 
Goertz,  who  conducted  negotiations  at  The  Hague, 
received  sums  of  sixty  thousand  and  one  hundred 
thousand  francs  from  the  Pretender;  "ten  thou- 
sand men  would  do  the  business"  in  the  spring, 
1 717.  The  expedition  was  to  sail  from  Gothen- 
burg and  on  landing  at  fixed  places  in  Scotland 
and  England  was  to  be  joined  by  leading  noble- 
men in  the  Army  and  the  Church  with  their  adher- 


Charles  XII  295 

ents.  The  Pretender  was  to  come  to  clinch  the 
matter,  but  Charles  was  not  privy  to  any  plan 
of  invasion,  and  disavowed  the  machinations  of 
Goertz,  when  he  knew  them.  Goertz  was  arrested 
in  Holland  and  kept  in  custody  for  a  time  while 
Gyllenborg  was  in  custody  from  January  29,  to 
August,  1 71 7,  when  he  was  exchanged  for  Jackson, 
the  English  Resident  at  Stockholm.  Byng  was 
to  blockade  Gothenburg  in  April,  171 7,  to  prevent 
the  expedition  from  sailing,  but  Charles  was  busy 
with  other  plans. 

He  invaded  Norway  in  171 7,  and  in  1718,  in 
order  to  recover  part  of  his  lost  German  dominions 
in  exchange  for  territory  occupied  in  Norway, 
Goertz  strained  Sweden  to  the  breaking-point. 
Every  able-bodied  man  was  taken  for  the  Army, 
and  the  country  was  inundated  by  paper-money 
and  copper  coinage ;  forced  loans  and  other  extreme 
measures  were  resorted  to.  Meanwhile  Goertz 
began  negotiations  with  Russia  in  the  Aland 
Islands  in  May,  171 8.  The  Russians  soon  found 
that  Goertz  dared  not  let  Charles  or  the  Swedish 
people  know  the  Russian  conditions.  Charles 
was  besieging  Frederikshald  in  Norway.  He  had 
captured  one  fort  and  was  in  the  approaches  to 
another  fort,  Frederiksten.  As  usual  he  exposed 
himself  recklessly  on  his  daily  inspections.  On 
December  11,  171 8,  as  he  was  looking  over  the 
parapet  of  a  trench  a  cannon-shot  struck  him  and 
passed  through  both  temples.  He  was  found 
standing  erect,  having  gripped  his  sword  in  the 


296  The  Story  of  Sweden 

moment  of  death.  A  monument  has  been  raised 
on  the  spot  where  his  life  was  ended.  The  British 
Secretary  of  State,  Craggs,  writes  to  Lord  Stair, 
on  December  29,  17 18,  on  hearing  of  the  death  of 
Charles:  "The  death  of  the  King  of  Sweden  is  a 
plain  declaration  that  our  Cause  is  a  just  one, 
since  God  has  so  visibly  espoused  it. "  Great  was 
the  impression  made  in  Europe  by  the  death  of  the 
hero  at  the  age  of  thirty-six  years.  He  had  all 
the  virtues  and  vices  of  the  viking  temperament, 
and  indeed  had  the  sagas  read  aloud  to  himself  in 
his  camp.  His  keen  sense  of  honour  and  his  belief 
in  ultimate  victory  of  right  and  justice  lay  at  the 
root  of  his  obstinacy.  He  possessed  intellectual 
abilities  of  the  highest  order.  He  would  have  done 
still  greater  marvels  with  his  Ironsides  and  founded 
an  empire  instead  of  losing  one,  if  he  had  lived 
seven  centuries  earlier.  Sweden  broke  off  negoti- 
ations with  Russia  and  concluded  peace  of  Stock- 
holm with  England-Hanover,  to  which  she  ceded 
Bremen  and  Werden,  and  with  Prussia  to  which 
she  ceded  Stettin  with  some  territories.  Denmark 
too,  by  the  Peace  of  Frederiksborg  retroceded 
all  her  conquests  for  600,000  rixdollars,  but 
Sweden  was  to  give  up  her  alliance  with  Holstein- 
Gottorp  and  her  exemption  from  Sound  dues. 
Sweden  had  hoped  that  the  British  fleet  in  the  Bal- 
tic would  assist  her  against  Russia,  but  it  stood  by 
inactive  during  repeated  Russian  raids  on  the 
Swedish  coast;  five  towns,  hundreds  of  villages 
and  farms,  and  millions  worth  of  property  were 


DEATH    MASK    OF    CHARLES    XII 


Charles  XII  297 

burnt  and  destroyed.  Bowing  to  the  inevitable, 
Sweden  concluded  peace  at  Nystad,  August  30, 
1 721;  she  ceded  her  Baltic  provinces,  Ingria,  Li- 
vonia, and  Esthonia,  and  of  Finland  Carelia  with 
Viborg  for  2,000,000  thaler,  free  trade  in  the 
Baltic  and  a  non-interference  in  her  internal 
affairs;  the  rest  of  Finland  was  retroceded  to 
Sweden.  The  bullet  that  killed  "the  Lion  of  the 
North"  killed  autocracy  in  Sweden.  The  Swed- 
ish people  had  suffered  grievously  during  his  reign, 
which  was  one  long  campaign.  The  first  victim 
of  the  long  pent-up  passions  now  set  free  was 
Baron  Goertz,  the  astute  diplomatist,  who  for 
three  years  had  upheld  his  master's  crumbling 
empire.  He  was  arrested  the  day  after  the  death 
of  Charles  XII.  "The  King's  death  is  my  death, " 
he  exclaimed ;  he  had  only  verbal  orders  from  him 
for  the  extreme  and  unpopular  measures  he  had 
taken.  Sentenced  on  February  nth,  he  was  be- 
headed under  the  gallows  on  March  2,  17 19. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

PARLIAMENTARISM    FREE   AND    UNFETTERED 

Ulrica  Leonora,  the  sister  of  Charles  XII, 
abdicated  at  the  beginning  of  1720  in  favour  of  her 
husband,  Frederick  of  Hesse,  who  was  elected  King 
as  Frederick  I  (1720-51).  At  the  same  time  a 
new  Constitution  deprived  the  King  of  every 
vestige  of  power.  He  could  not  even  appoint 
members  of  the  State  Council,  but  had  to  appoint 
one  of  the  three  pointed  out  to  him ;  he  presided  at 
its  meetings,  but  had  only  a  casting  vote.  The 
four  Estates  were  like  four  separate  parliaments, 
but  the  House  of  Nobles  held  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment through  the  Secret  Committee,  in  which  they 
always  had  a  majority  against  the  other  Estates. 
The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Nobles  presided  in 
this  Committee  which,  during  the  session,  held  the 
executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  power  of  the  State 
in  his  hands.  Tenure  of  office  by  ministers  de- 
pended on  its  will ;  it  directed  the  foreign  policy  of 
Sweden,  and  prepared  all  bills  and  acted,  also,  as  a 
kind  of  court  of  appeal  from  all  courts  in  the 
country.  No  peasants  were,  as  a  rule,  members 
of  this  Committee.     Thus  in  reality  the  supreme 

298 


Parliamentarism  Free  and  Unfettered  299 

power  was  held  by  the  House  of  Nobles,  which 
was  composed  of  the  heads  of  the  noble  families; 
many  of  the  poorer  sold  their  proxies  to  the  high- 
est bidder,  and  thus  their  right  to  sit  in  the  House 
of  Nobles  was  a  regular  source  of  income  to  them. 

Count  Arvid  Horn  was  the  prudent  and  cautious 
ruler  of  Sweden  during  the  nearly  twenty  years  of 
peace  that  followed  the  Great  Northern  War.  His 
policy  was  to  avoid  war  almost  at  any  cost,  and  to 
develop  the  resources  of  the  country  in  peace;  his 
ideal  was  England,  English  industries,  and  English 
institutions.  He  held  aloof  from  France.  Soon  a 
party  arose  in  the  House  of  Nobles  which  ridiculed 
the  timid  and  inglorious  pursuit  of  peace  by  Horn 
and  his  men,  and  nicknamed  them  "Night  Caps,  " 
or  "Caps,"  while  they  took  the  name  "Hats" 
themselves  as  men  who  were  proud  to  restore 
Sweden  to  her  pristine  glory  as  a  Great  Power. 
They  were  the  allies  of  France  which  provided 
them  with  subsidies.  They  were  the  enemies  of 
Russia.  These  party  names,  "Caps"  and  "Hats" 
were  generally  used  till  the  revolution  of  1772. 

In  the  session  of  1738  the  Hats,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Count  Tessin,  dominated  the  Secret  Com- 
mittee and  consequently  foreign  policy;  Count 
Horn  resigned.  He  was  an  honest  and  God-fear- 
ing man,  under  whose  wise  and  fostering  rule 
Swedish  industries  prospered  and  the  wounds 
of  the  war  were  healed.  The  Hats  came  into 
power  through  wholesale  bribery  with  French  gold 
and  through  superior  organization.     They  openly 


300  The  Story  of  Sweden 

avowed  their  desire  to  recover  the  provinces  ceded 
to  Russia.  The  deaths  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
VI  and  of  the  Empress  Anne  of  Russia  seemed  to 
give  them  a  favourable  juncture.  The  assassina- 
tion of  a  Swedish  envoy,  Major  Sinclair,  on  his 
way  with  dispatches  from  Constantinople  to  Stock- 
holm, by  Russians,  gave  the  Hats  a  pretext  for 
declaring  war,  1 74 1.  The  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Nobles,  Lewenhaupt,  commanded  the  army  in 
Finland  which  was  unready  and  ill-provided;  the 
officers  were  politicians  who  were  sometimes  absent 
in  Stockholm.  The  Russians  captured  General 
Wrangel  and  the  frontier  fortress  Villmanstrand, 
and  when  Lewenhaupt  crossed  the  frontier,  he 
soon  withdrew,  according  to  secret  communications 
with  Elizabeth,  who  became  Empress  through  a 
Court  revolution.  After  the  expiry  of  a  truce  the 
demoralized  Swedish  army  retreated  from  position 
after  position  till  by  the  Convention  of  Helsing- 
fors,  1742,  it  evacuated  Finland.  The  old  martial 
spirit  was  sadly  lacking.  The  Empress  Elizabeth, 
to  prevent  the  election  of  the  Prince  Royal  of 
Denmark  as  Heir  to  the  Swedish  throne,  consented 
to  restore  Finland  on  condition  that  Duke  Adol- 
phus  Frederick  of  Holstein  Gottorp  should  be 
elected  by  the  Estates  as  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden. 
By  the  Treaty  of  Abo,  1743,  Finland  was  restored 
to  Sweden  with  the  exception  of  the  territory 
east  of  Kymmene  River.  The  Duke  was  duly 
elected,  but  the  discontented  peasantry  were  not 
pacified  by  the  trial  of  two  of  the  generals  who 


Parliamentarism  Free  and  Unfettered  301 

had  brought  dishonour  on  the  Swedish  arms  in 
Finland;  thousands  of  armed  Dalecarlians,  adher- 
ents of  the  Danish  prince,  marched  on  Stockholm 
and  encamped  in  the  central  square  of  the  town. 
After  all  other  means  had  been  tried  the  troops 
engaged  them,  and  a  number  were  killed  and 
the  rest  pardoned.  Two  of  the  generals  respon- 
sible for  the  misfortunes  of  the  war  were  then  tried 
and  executed.  The  Empress  Elizabeth  was  willing 
to  restore  Finland  if  her  cousin,  Adolphus  Frederick 
of  Holstein,  was  elected  Heir  to  the  Swedish  throne 
by  the  Estates.  Queen  Ulrica  Eleonora  had  died 
childless,  and  King  Frederick  was  old  and  in- 
firm. The  Hats  were  glad  to  agree  to  any  terms, 
and  in  the  Peace  of  Abo,  May,  1743,  Finland  was 
retroceded  with  the  exception  of  a  district  east  of 
Kymmene  River. 

Adolphus  Frederick,  a  nonentity  like  his  pre- 
decessor, was  married  to  Louise  Ulrica,  sister  of 
Fredrick  the  Great,  an  ambitious  and  gifted  woman 
whose  French  sympathies  made  her  incline  to  the 
Hats.  Their  leader,  Count  Tessin,  was  her  friend, 
philosopher,  and  guide  until  he  arranged  a  be- 
trothal between  her  infant  son,  Gustavus,  and  a 
Danish  princess  to  counter-check  the  Russo-Danish 
alliance  and  the  pro-Russian  Caps.  In  this  he  acted 
directly  against  the  wishes  of  the  King  and  Queen. 
On  the  death  of  Frederick  I,  1751,  Adolphus 
Frederick  succeeded  to  the  throne.  The  Estates 
and  Council  were  determined  to  show  for  how 
little  royalty  counted  in  a  state  which  was  ^n 


302  The  Story  of  Sweden 

oligarchic  republic  in  all  but  the  name.  A  name- 
stamp,  with  his  signature,  was  made,  to  be  used  by 
the  Council  in  case  he  should  be  recalcitrant  or  re- 
fuse to  sign  anything  submitted  to  him.  All  State 
appointments  were  made  by  the  Council,  even  those 
of  members  of  the  royal  household.  The  tutors 
engaged  for  the  royal  children  by  their  parents  were 
sent  away  and  their  places  taken  by  Hat  partisans. 
The  Queen  formed  a  Court  party  and  planned  a 
revolution  against  this  to  her  intolerable  tyranny 
(1756),  but  the  conspiracy  was  discovered  pre- 
maturely and  the  noblemen  who  assisted  her  were 
executed  for  high  treason  or  fled  the  country. 
The  Queen  was  admonished,  and  the  Speakers 
of  all  the  Estates  handed  the  King  an  instruction 
which  he  was  to  hand  to  the  new  tutor  of  the 
Crown  Prince.  The  whole  duty  of  the  King  of 
Sweden  was  there  set  forth,  that  he  must  not 
think  he  is  more  than  any  other  man  because  the 
State,  for  its  own  sake,  invests  him  with  splendour, 
that  in  a  free  state  he  is  a  mere  figure-head  that  is 
tolerated,  and  other  humiliating  remarks  which 
His  Majesty  had  to  pocket. 

Linnaeus  (Carl  von  Linne)  (1707-78),  the  great 
botanist,  taught  at  Uppsala  University  in  this 
reign.  His  collections,  books,  and  MSS.  are  in 
-Jthe  Linnean  Society  in  London.  Swedenborg 
af  1688-1772),  scientist  and  mystic,  anticipated 
^mSnjrof  the  results  of  modern  research. 
'7C§wetlen  was  dragged  into  the  Seven  Years'  War 
^fl  tMe^orljit  of  France.     After  a  series  of  inglorious 


Parliamentarism  Free  and  Unfettered  303 

campaigns  in  Pomerania  (1756-62),  the  Hats  made 
peace  on  the  status  quo  ante  helium  (1762).  Their 
recklessly  wasteful  government  came  to  an  end  in 
1765,  when  the  Caps  came  in  on  a  retrench- 
ment program  and  reduced  the  National  Debt. 
They  introduced  freedom  of  the  Press.  But, 
peaceful  as  they  were,  they  were  closely  allied 
with  Russia  and  depended  on  Russian  subsidies. 
Catherine  II  intended  that  Sweden  should  share 
the  fate  of  Poland,  and  secretly  leagued  herself 
with  Denmark  and  Prussia  to  guarantee  and 
support  its  free  Constitution  as  the  means  best 
adapted  for  its  future  partition. 

Discontent  with  the  parsimony  and  retrench- 
ment of  the  Caps  was  rife,  and  the  Council  decreed 
that  criticism  of  the  Estates  should  be  punished 
with  fines  and  imprisonment.  The  King  urged 
the  Council  to  summon  the  Estates  to  adopt 
measures  of  relief.  When  they  refused  he  formally 
abdicated,  forbidding  the  Council  to  make  use  of 
his  name.  For  six  days,  December  15  to  21,  1768, 
Sweden  had  no  Government.  The  public  officials 
sympathized  with  the  King  and  refused  to  obey  the 
orders  of  the  Council  with  the  royal  name-stamp; 
the  Treasury  refused  to  pay  out  money  and  the 
colonel  of  the  Guards  declared  he  could  no  longer 
keep  his  troops  in  hand.  The  Council  then  yielded 
and  summoned  the  Estates  for  April,  1769.  Norr- 
koping  was  to  be  its  meeting-place  because  there 
the  Russian  fleet  could  overawe  the  deputies;  the 
Russian    Ambassador    supplied    the    Caps    with 


304  The  Story  of  Sweden 

money  enough  to  bribe  all  waverers.  The  French 
Ambassador  supplied  the  Hats  with  6,000,000 
francs  in  return  for  a  written  undertaking  to 
reform  the  Constitution  into  a  real  monarchy. 
The  elections  gave  the  Hats  a  majority  in  all  the 
Estates,  and  the  Hats  took  the  place  of  the  Caps  in 
the  Council.  The  Estates  moved  to  Stockholm 
and  closed  their  ten  months'  session  without  the 
reform  of  the  Constitution  promised. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

GUSTAVUS   III 

Crown  Prince  Gustavus  was  in  Paris  when  his 
father  died,  February,  1771.  France  promised  him 
a  subsidy  of  1,500,000  francs  a  year.  He  had 
fascinated  everybody  by  his  brilliant  qualities. 
French  was  to  him  a  second  mother-tongue.  With 
his  graceful  wit,  his  charm  of  manner,  his  passion 
for  dramatic  display,  he  transplanted  these  master 
qualities  of  the  French  spirit  to  Swedish  soil.  He 
was  only  twenty-five  when  he  went  back  to  Sweden, 
June,  1 77 1,  in  order  to  save  his  country  from  being 
a  second  Poland,  the  victim  of  factions  corrupted 
by  foreign  gold.  He  was  welcomed  with  enthusi- 
asm. He  opened  Parliament  with  a  speech  whose 
eloquence  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  Swedish 
oratory.  He  held  it  the  greatest  honour  to  be  the 
first  citizen  of  a  free  people,  and  urged  them  to 
sacrifice  party  animosities  to  the  common  welfare. 
Through  his  endeavours  a  composition  committee 
was  formed  to  divide  the  spoils  of  office  between 
Hats  and  Caps  and  deal  with  them  firmly  and 
squarely.  But  the  Caps  had  things  their  own  way, 
and  Gustavus  was  compelled  to  borrow  more 
20  305 


306  The  Story  of  Sweden 

than  3,000,000  crowns  to  procure  the  election  of  a 
Hat  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Nobles  by  means  of 
bribery.  Catherine  II,  however,  spent  a  large 
sum  to  give  the  Caps,  the  Patriots  as  she  called 
them,  a  majority  in  the  Secret  Committee.  The 
Coronation  Oath  (Royal  Assurance)  drafted  by 
them  contained  new  clauses,  binding  the  King  to 
reign  uninterruptedly  (to  make  abdication  im- 
possible), to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  majority 
of  the  Estates — to  enable  the  three  lower  Estates 
to  prevail  against  the  House  of  Nobles,  and  to  be 
guided  solely  by  merit  in  making  appointments — 
thus  abolishing  a  privilege  of  the  Nobles.  After 
endless  debates  and  discussions,  the  House  of 
Nobles  agreed  to  the  new  Coronation  Oath  in 
February,  1772,  and  the  King,  weary  and  disgusted, 
appended  his  signature  to  this  perpetuation  of  the 
anarchy  which  was  upheld  by  Russian  bribery  until 
the  moment  came  to  pounce  on  her  prey. 

As  he  was  revolving  schemes  of  revolution  in  his 
mind  he  was  approached,  first  by  Colonel  Magnus 
Sprengtporten,  a  nobleman  from  Finland,  and 
then  by  J.  C.  Toll,  a  ranger  from  Scania,  men  of 
equal  ability  and  audacity,  enemies  of  the  Caps. 
Sprengtporten  proposed  to  seize  Sveaborg  and 
sail  with  the  royalists  of  Finland  to  compel  the 
Estates  by  force  to  accept  the  King's  conditions; 
Toll  to  seize  the  fortress  of  Kristianstad  in  Scania 
when  Charles,  the  King's  brother,  was  to  pretend 
to  crush  the  revolt  with  a  southern  army,  but  in 
reality  was  to  join  Toll  and  march  upon  Stockholm 


Gustavus  III  307 

to  attack  the  Estates  simultaneously  with  Sprengt- 
porten.  This  plot  developed.  Toll  won  over  the 
officers  of  the  Kristianstad  garrison  by  sheer 
bluff;  Sprengtporten  did  the  same  at  Sveaborg, 
.  but  head  winds  prevented  him  from  sailing  for 
over  a  week.  The  English  Ambassador  com- 
municated news  of  the  plot  to  the  Council,  and 
their  Commissioner  in  Scania  arrived  in  Stockholm 
on  August  1 6th  with  the  story  of  the  revolt 
at  Kristianstad.  The  Council  at  their  meeting 
were  in  favour  of  arresting  the  King,  and  only 
refrained  till  they  had  proofs  of  his  guilt.  The 
courier  from  Prince  Charles  with  the  official  news 
of  the  revolt  for  the  Council  brought  a  secret  letter 
sewn  into  his  saddle  for  his  brother,  the  King. 
Alone  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies,  hundreds  of 
miles  from  his  fellow-conspirators,  Gustavus  re- 
solved to  strike  the  blow  himself.  He  had  already 
won  over  the  cavalry  patrols  in  the  streets  by  his 
personal  charm.  On  August  18th  he  sent  secret 
orders  to  all  royalist  officers  in  Stockholm  to  meet 
him  at  ten  next  morning  in  Arsenal  Square.  He 
stayed  up  all  night  sorting  papers;  he  drew  up  an 
order  for  the  arrest  of  the  Council;  he  copied  his 
draft  of  the  new  Constitution  on  vellum,  and  wrote 
a  letter  to  his  brother  not  to  avenge  his  death  if  he 
were  killed.  At  6  A.  m.,  he  received  the  sacra- 
ment from  his  chaplain,  who  took  his  private 
papers  in  a  casket  to  the  Spanish  Ambassador. 
He  communicated  the  news  of  the  coup  d'etat  to 
the  corps  diplomatique  on  the  back  of  a  ten-dollar 


308  The  Story  of  Sweden 

note.  At  10  A.  m.,  August  19th,  he  was  on  horse- 
back at  Arsenal  Square  and  about  two  hundred 
officers  joined  him.  After  the  parade  the  King 
said  in  a  loud  voice:  "As  all  these  gentlemen 
return  on  foot  I  may  as  well  do  so,  too. "  This 
was  the  prearranged  signal  for  the  revolution  which 
was  not  to  take  place  that  day,  if  the  King  mounted 
his  horse  again.  The  officers  accompanied  him 
to  the  Guards'  Room  where,  in  a  glowing  speech, 
he  won  over  the  Guards.  "If  you  will  follow  me 
as  your  forefathers  followed  Gustavus  Vasa  and 
Gustavus  Adolphus  I  will  venture  my  life-blood 
for  the  safety  and  honour  of  my  country."  While 
he  sent  an  officer  with  thirty  Guards  to  arrest  the 
State  Council,  who  were  holding  a  meeting  in 
the  Palace  and  were  tamely  locked  in,  he  dic- 
tated a  new  oath  of  allegiance  to  men  and  officers  in 
the  Guards'  Room,  binding  them  not  to  obey  the 
Estates  but  only  their  lawful  King,  Gustavus  III, 
and  to  defend  him  and  the  new  Constitution  he 
would  give  them.  The  Governor  of  Stockholm 
was  arrested.  The  members  of  the  Secret  Com- 
mittee fled.  Gustavus  occupied  the  Arsenal,  and 
at  the  artillery  yard  he  tied  a  white  handkerchief 
round  his  left  arm  as  a  royalist  badge  which  he 
asked  his  friends  to  adopt.  Instantly  the  whole 
population  of  Stockholm  fluttered  the  white  hand- 
kerchief. Making  a  complete  tour  of  the  city 
Gustavus  was  hailed  as  a  deliverer  by  huge  crowds 
everywhere.  A  bloodless  revolution  had  made 
him  master  of  Sweden  in  a  few  hours.     The  city 


GUSTAVUS   III 


Gustavus  III  309 

gates  were  closed  and  strong  guards  were  posted  at 
night.  The  Russian  Ambassador  tried  in  vain  to 
foment  a  counter  revolution. 

On  August  20th,  heralds  proclaimed  throughout 
the  city  that  the  Estates  were  to  assemble  at  4  P.  M. 
next  day,  and  that  every  absent  deputy  would  be 
counted  an  enemy  of  his  king  and  country.  On  the 
2 1  st  the  Life  Guards  were  drawn  up  on  both  sides 
of  the  main  street.  The  Hall  of  the  Estates  was 
surrounded  by  artillery,  the  men  standing  by  their 
guns  with  lighted  matches.  Instead  of  the  usual 
State  procession  headed  by  the  four  Speakers  with 
their  maces  before  them,  the  frightened  deputies 
sneaked  one  by  one  to  their  places,  running  the 
gauntlet  of  rows  of  bayonets.  Whereupon  the 
King,  crown  on  head  and  sceptre  in  hand,  took  his 
seat  on  the  throne  and  delivered  what  is  considered 
by  many  to  be  the  greatest  masterpiece  of  Swed- 
ish oratory.  Not  since  1527,  at  Vesteras  from 
Gustavus  Vasa,  had  a  Swedish  Parliament  listened 
to  such  language  from  the  throne.  "Liberty  has 
been  transformed  into  aristocratic  tyranny.  Par- 
ties are  united  only  in  mangling  and  dishonouring 
their  common  fatherland.  The  majority  is  above 
the  law  and  owns  no  restraint.  Rid  yourselves 
of  fetters  of  foreign  gold  and  domestic  discord. 
If  honour  is  dead  in  your  hearts,  my  blushes  ought 
to  make  you  feel  into  what  contempt  the  king- 
dom has  been  thrown  by  you.  If  there  be  any 
here  present  who  can  deny  the  truth  of  what  I 
have  said,  let  him  stand  up ! "     In  their  hearts  they 


310  The  Story  of  Sweden 

knew,  every  man  of  them,  that  these  stinging  re- 
proaches were  well  deserved.  Thereupon  he  had 
the  new  Constitution  read  out  to  the  dumb- 
founded deputies  and,  without  granting  them  one 
minute  for  deliberating  on  it,  demanded  if  they 
would  solemnly  bind  themselves  to  keep  it.  They 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  unanimously,  repeat- 
ing their  "yes"  three  times.  The  Constitution 
was  signed  by  the  Speakers.  The  King  signed 
his  new  Coronation  Oath.  Thereupon  he  laid 
aside  his  crown,  drew  a  psalm-book  from  his  pocket 
and  made  a  sign  for  all  to  join  in  chanting  a  Te 
Deum  to  thank  God  for  knitting  together  again 
the  old  ties  between  King  and  people.  In  a  few 
hours  a  weak  and  faction-ridden  republic,  the 
prospective  prey  of  its  neighbours,  had  been 
changed  into  a  strong,  constitutional  monarchy. 
No  harsh  measures  of  any  kind  were  adopted. 
The  captive  State  Councillors  were  treated  more 
like  guests  than  prisoners  in  the  Palace,  and  all 
kissed  his  hand  on  their  release.  A  proclamation 
forbade  the  use  of  those  odious  and  abominable 
names,  Hats  and  Caps,  which  had  "smitten 
Sweden  with  the  worst  abuses  ever  known  in  a 
Christian  country." 

The  new  Constitution  restored  the  ancient 
monarchy  in  Sweden,  in  abeyance  during  the  Age 
of  Freedom  or  Anarchy,  1720-72.  The  Crown 
alone  could  call  together  and  dissolve  the  Estates, 
and  they  could  only  debate  measures  and  pro- 
posals laid  before  them  by  the  King.     The  Crown 


Gustavus  III  311 

again  became  the  depository  of  honours  and  ap- 
pointments, of  foreign  affairs  and  of  the  supreme 
command  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  right 
of  appointing  and  dismissing  State  Councillors 
and  the  four  Speakers  was  taken  from  the  Estates 
and  again  became  a  royal  prerogative.  But  large 
powers  were  still  left  with  the  Estates.  Their 
consent  was  necessary  for  an  offensive  war  and  for 
war  subsidies ;  they  retained  the  power  of  taxation 
in  their  hands  and  controlled  all  expenditure.  But 
the  State  Council  became  wholly  dependent  on, 
and  responsible  to,  the  King.  Judges  were  made 
immovable  to  prevent  the  miscarriage  of  justice 
owing  to  party  interest.  But  the  mutual  limits 
of  the  powers  possessed  by  Crown  and  Parliament 
were  vague  and  ill-defined.  Catherine  II  was 
furious  at  the  escape  of  the  Swedish  prey  from  her 
clutches,  but  refrained  from  a  war  to  restore  the 
old  Constitution;  her  hands  were  full  with  the 
partitioning  of  Poland  and  with  the  Turkish  war, 
but  she  renewed  her  secret  alliance  with  Den- 
mark, to  intervene  when  the  time  came  to  undo 
the  Swedish  revolution. 

The  period  1772-86  is  filled  with  liberal  and 
much-needed  reforms,  in  most  of  which  the  King 
is  the  prime  mover  and  spirit.  Judicial  torture  is 
abolished,  freedom  of  the  Press  introduced,  the 
currency  regulated,  the  administration  of  justice 
reformed,  the  national  defences  pulled  out  of  the 
slough  of  despond  into  which  they  had  sunk. 
Maladministration  of  justice  was  so  rife  that  the 


312  The  Story  of  Sweden 

King  prosecuted  one  of  the  Supreme  Courts  of 
Sweden  before  the  State  Council  and  presided  him- 
self at  the  trial ;  more  than  one  half  of  its  judges 
were  found  guilty  and  disbenched.  Abuses  in  the 
Army,  which  was  honeycombed  with  politics,  were 
sternly  repressed.  Toll  was  the  guiding  spirit 
in  reforming  the  Army.  A  new  Navy  was  rapidly 
built  by  an  Englishman  in  the  Swedish  naval 
service,  and  huge  docks  were  built  at  Karlskrona. 
Ehrensvard  built  the  impregnable  fortress  of 
Sveaborg  on  the  coast  of  Finland  outside  Helsing- 
fors;  it  could  easily  hold  in  its  harbour  the  large 
galley  flotilla  which  was  to  defend  the  rock  and 
islet-studded  coast  of  Finland  against  Russia.  In 
every  department  of  State  sweeping  reforms  were 
carried  out  by  able  men  chosen  by  the  King. 

He  called  the  Estates  together  in  1778  and  ren- 
dered account  of  the  great  work  done.  There  was 
no  room  for  anything  but  admiration  and  approval 
of  the  monarch,  who  fascinated  everyone  who 
came  under  his  personal  influence.  Still  they  sorely 
missed  the  francs  and  roubles  which  used  to  be 
doled  out  so  liberally.  The  vote  of  a  member  had 
a  market  value  which  in  critical  times  could  reach 
a  large  sum.  Now  their  gracious  and  gentle  master 
wore  an  iron  hand  in  a  velvet  glove.  Their  power 
had  departed  from  them  to  him.  The  Estates 
were  summoned  again  in  1786.  By  that  time  the 
disaffected  nobility  had  succeeded  in  fomenting 
discontent  in  the  country.  The  presentation  to 
ecclesiastical  benefices  for  money  and  gifts,  inter- 


Gustavus  III  313 

ference  with  private  distillation  of  spirits  and 
attempts  to  make  it  a  Government  monopoly, 
the  increase  in  taxation  and  other  reasons  contri- 
buted to  make  the  Estates  so  refractory  that  they 
threw  out  the  royal  bills  or  mutilated  them  so 
as  not  to  be  acceptable.  They  were  curtly  dis- 
missed by  the  King.  He  now  no  longer  relied  on 
the  Estates  but  on  the  co-operation  of  selected 
men,  brilliantly  gifted,  ruthless  royalists,  ready  to 
carry  out  his  designs,  constitutional  or  not.  Gus- 
tavus strained  every  nerve  to  prepare  for  the  final 
reckoning  with  Russia.  Catherine  II  had  secretly 
leagued  herself  with  Denmark  to  intervene  to 
restore  the  republican  Swedish  Constitution  of 
1720.  He  seized  the  opportunity  when  she  was  at 
war  with  Turkey.  In  the  spring  of  1788  he  de- 
manded an  explanation  of  the  Russian  military 
preparations  in  Finland.  Catherine  returned  a 
meek  and  reassuring  answer.  As  he  could  not 
begin  an  offensive  war  without  the  consent  of  the 
Estates,  he  got  the  Council  to  approve  his  action 
by  telling  them  that  Russia  was  on  the  point  of 
invading  Finland  with  a  large  army — which  was 
not  true.  He  sailed  for  Finland  with  a  large  and 
well-equipped  army  at  midsummer,  1788.  At  the 
same  time  in  a  letter  to  Catherine  he  demanded 
the  cession  of  Carelia  and  Livonia  to  Sweden,  of 
the  Crimea  to  Turkey,  and  the  instant  disbanding 
of  the  Russian  troops.  Consternation  and  anger 
reigned  in  Petersburg.  Catherine  prepared  to 
defend  herself  against  this  "madman"  and  punish 


314  The  Story  of  Sweden 

his  insolence.  Petersburg  was  saved  by  a  mutiny 
in  the  Swedish  army.  The  Swedish  officers  of  the 
nobility,  "citizens  first  and  soldiers  afterwards," 
were  dead  against  an  "unconstitutional"  war,  and 
joining  hands  with  Finnish  troops  they  had  won 
over  they  forced  the  King  to  march  back  across 
the  frontier.  Whereupon  the  mutineers  wrote  to 
Catherine  II  that  this  war  had  been  begun  for  none, 
or  insufficient,  reasons,  that  Swedish  and  Rus- 
sian Finland  joined  in  one  independent  Finland 
would  be  the  best  guarantee  of  a  lasting  peace,  and 
that  Her  Majesty's  gracious  and  early  reply  would 
determine  whether  they,  the  true  spokesmen  of  the 
Swedish  people,  would  discontinue  the  war  or  not. 
In  answer  Catherine,  without  committing  herself 
to  anything,  praised  the  patriotism  of  the  Finnish 
people  and  vaguely  promised  that  their  represent- 
atives should  meet  to  deliberate  on  the  future 
status  of  Finland,  under  the  protection  of  Russia. 
At  Anjala  the  leaders  of  the  rebels  drew  up  a 
declaration  addressed  to  the  King,  protesting 
against  this  unconstitutional  war  which  it  was  their 
duty  to  the  nation  to  bring  to  an  end.  Gustavus 
was  forced  to  be  a  passive  spectator  of  these 
treasonable  proceedings,  on  board  his  yacht  on 
the  Kymmene  River.  At  the  news  of  a  Danish 
invasion  of  Sweden  he  exclaimed :  "We  are  saved ! " 
He  could  now  depart  to  rally  his  people  in  the  hour 
of  danger,  without  seeming  to  desert  the  Army. 
As  he  embarked  the  Anjala  Declaration  was  handed 
to  him;  he  returned  it  unopened,  with  the  words: 


Gustavus  III  315 

"I  do  not  treat  with  rebels."  He  hastened  to 
Dalecarlia  and  appealed  to  the  sturdy  peasantry 
who  so  often  of  yore  had  saved  Sweden.  Thou- 
sands of  volunteers  nocked  to  his  standard.  Mean- 
while a  Danish  army  was  advancing  from  the 
Norwegian  border  on  Gothenburg,  then  the 
greatest  commercial  city  of  Sweden,  which  was  in 
a  panic  and  prepared  to  surrender.  Suddenly  at 
midnight  on  September  25th,  Gustavus,  having 
riden  250  miles  on  horseback  in  forty-eight  hours, 
appeared  alone  at  the  city  gates.  As  by  magic 
he  put  the  city  in  a  state  of  defence  and  raised 
volunteers,  while  reinforcements  of  Dalecarlians 
arrived  hour  by  hour,  so  that  all  thoughts  of 
surrender  vanished.  Hugh  Elliot,  the  British 
Ambassador  in  Copenhagen,  intervened  so  ener- 
getically in  the  Danish  camp  that  the  Danish  troops 
evacuated  Sweden,  in  November,  1788.  Gusta- 
vus convoked  the  Estates  in  1789.  The  three 
lower  Estates  were  filled  with  admiration  at  the 
patriotic  courage  of  the  King,  while  about  three 
fourths  of  the  950  nobles  who  sat  in  the  House  of 
Nobles  were  Anjala  men,  self-styled  patriots,  who 
defended  the  mutiny.  A  whole  literature  of  bal- 
lads and  pamphlets  sprung  up  contrasting  the 
cowardice  and  treason  of  the  noble  officers  with 
the  patriotism  of  the  non-noble  classes.  Met  with 
obstruction  in  the  granting  of  supplies  by  the 
nobles  at  the  outset,  the  King  laid  before  the  Es- 
tates an  Act  of  Union  and  Security  which  amended 
the    Constitution    and    gave    the    King    the   full 


316  The  Story  of  Sweden 

control  of  peace  and  war  and  of  foreign  affairs. 
After  arresting  twenty-one  of  the  leading  men 
among  the  Anjala  nobles  on  February  16th,  he 
introduced  in  person  the  new  Constitution  to  the 
Estates  assembled  in  Congress  on  February  17th. 
In  response  to  his  question,  thrice  repeated,  whether 
the  Estates  accepted  it  the  loud  ayes  of  the  lower 
Estates  drowned  the  noes  of  the  nobles,  and  the 
Act  was  passed  over  their  heads.  The  grant  of 
supplies  for  the  war  required  the  consent  of  all 
four  Estates ;  the  three  lower  Estates  readily  agreed, 
but  in  the  House  of  Nobles  the  King  took  his  seat 
in  the  Speaker's  chair,  made  a  fervid  appeal  to 
the  House,  put  the  question  and  declared  it  car- 
ried in  spite  of  overwhelming  opposition.  By 
this  high-handed  proceeding,  at  the  danger  of  his 
life,  he  earned  the  undying  hatred  of  his  nobles. 
The  abolition  of  the  Council  or  Senate  in  May, 
1789,  and  the  arrest  of  the  leaders  of  the  Anjala 
conspiracy  followed. 

In  the  summer  of  1789  the  Russians  were 
defeated  in  no  less  than  three  pitched  battles  in 
Finland.  At  sea,  though  the  fighting  was  indeci- 
sive, the  victory  also  inclined  to  the  Swedish  side. 
In  1790  Gustavus  planned  a  simultaneous  attack 
on  Petersburg  by  land  and  sea.  His  brother, 
Duke  Charles,  advanced  as  far  as  Cronstadt 
with  his  fleet,  and  the  thunder  of  the  Swedish  guns 
was  audible  to  Catherine,  who  spent  sleepless 
nights  in  her  palace.  But  the  Swedes  ventured 
too  far  into  the  land-locked  waters  of  Viborg,  and 


Gustavus  III  317 

after  being  hemmed  in  by  overwhelming  forces 
for  some  weeks,  made  a  desperate  effort  to  escape 
through  a  narrow  channel  where  they  had  to  run 
the  gauntlet  of  the  enemy's  fire.  They  escaped 
with  the  loss  of  ten  men-of-war  and  many  galleys. 
This  was  the  battle  of  the  Viborg  Gauntlet,  July  3, 
1790.  About  a  week  later  in  Svensksund,  Gusta- 
vus gained  the  greatest  naval  victory  recorded  in 
the  history  of  Sweden.  The  Russians  lost  fifty- 
five  ships  captured,  a  number  were  destroyed,  and 
their  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners  was 
nearly  14,000.  Sidney  Smith  fought  with  the 
Swedes.  Peace  was  concluded  on  August  14, 
1790,  at  Varala,  on  the  Kymmene  River.  Con- 
quests and  prisoners  were  mutually  restored,  but 
the  status  quo  was  agreed  to  on  the  understanding 
that  Russia  would  hereafter  abstain  from  inter- 
vention in  the  internal  affairs  of  Sweden.  Gus- 
tavus now  bent  all  his  energies  to  form  a  league 
of  European  princes  to  join  in  a  monarch- 
ical crusade  against  revolutionary  France.  He 
formed  an  alliance  with  Catherine  for  this  pur- 
pose. He  was  to  land  in  Normandy  with  a  Russo- 
Swedish  army  and  march  on  Paris.  He  called 
the  Estates  together  at  Gefle,  and  carried  every- 
thing with  his  impetuous  eloquence.  During  its 
session  aristocratic  conspirators  waited  in  vain  for 
an  opportunity  to  assassinate  him.  He  was  shot 
in  the  back  with  a  pistol  at  a  masquerade  in  the 
Opera  House  at  Stockholm,  about  midnight  on 
March  16,   1792.     He  lingered  for  twelve  days, 


3i8  The  Story  of  Sweden 

and  begged  that  the  authors  of  the  crime  should 
not  be  punished,  and  hoped  that  his  death  would 
reconcile  all  parties.  He  was  an  active  and  eager 
patron  of  literature,  science,  and  art.  His  dramas 
from  Swedish  history  have  literary  merit.  His 
inaugural  orations  on  various  occasions  touched 
the  high-water  mark  of  Swedish  oratory. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

GUSTAVUS  IV — THE  LOSS  OF  FINLAND 

His  assassin,  Anckarstrom,  was  whipped  through 
the  capital  and  pilloried  in  irons  for  three  days ;  his 
right  hand  was  cut  off  and  he  was  beheaded,  drawn, 
and  quartered.  But  the  equally  guilty  aristocratic 
regicides  were  merely  sent  out  of  the  country.  This 
was  owing  to  the  influence  of  Reuterholm  who  was 
the  ruler  of  Sweden  during  the  regency  of  Duke 
Charles,  1792-96.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Rousseau; 
he  removed  all  the  brilliant  monarchists  who  had 
formed  the  Gustavian  Court.  He  was  on  friendly 
terms  with  the  French  Republic  even  after  the 
execution  of  Louis  XVI ;  the  Republic  was  officially 
recognized  by  Sweden,  which  accepted  subsidies 
from  France  and  flouted  the  opinion  of  Europe. 
The  Gustavian  monarchists  conspired  against  a 
regime  which  seemed  to  be  dangerous  for  the  very 
existence  of  the  throne ;  Russia  was  going  to  support 
the  revolution.  Rueterholm  discovered  the  plot 
in  time  by  opening  private  letters.  Armfelt,  the 
guiding  spirit  of  the  conspiracy,  escaped  to  Russia, 
but  his  mistress,  who  had  rejected  Duke  Charles 
as  lover,  was  pilloried  in  Stockholm,  and  public 

3r9 


320  The  Story  of  Sweden 

opinion  in  Sweden  turned  against  the  mean  and 
vindictive  spirit  of  the  Government.  Frightened, 
the  advisers  of  the  Duke  Regent  became  reaction- 
ary. The  Press  was  forbidden  to  refer  to  the 
Constitution  of  France  or  the  United  States,  and 
republican  literature  was  prohibited.  Yet  Sweden 
had  officially  recognized  the  French  Republic  and 
received  a  subsidy.  In  the  autumn  of  1796 
Gustavus  IV  visited  Petersburg  with  a  view 
to  marrying  Alexandra,  the  granddaughter  of 
Catherine  II,  but  as  his  Lutheran  scruples  would 
not  allow  his  bride  to  worship  in  her  Greek 
Orthodox  Church  after  the  marriage,  the  be- 
trothal festivities  were  broken  off.  Catherine 
was  much  aggrieved  and  died  two  months  later. 
Gustavus  IV  came  of  age  on  November  1,  1796, 
and  his  first  act  on  taking  over  the  Government 
was  to  dismiss  Reuterholm.  The  brilliant  entour- 
age of  Gustavus  III  came  back  and  resumed  their 
places  in  the  Government.  The  King's  narrow- 
minded  obstinacy  was  hidden  away  under  his 
deeply  religious  sense  of  duty.  His  marriage  to 
a  princess  of  Baden  intensified  his  hatred  of  the 
French  republic.  His  reactionary  zeal  was  such 
that  he  put  off  his  coronation  till  1800  rather 
than  summon  the  Estates.  The  House  of  Nobles 
passed  the  Act  of  Union  and  Security  under  com- 
pulsion, some  of  its  members  being  afraid  that  their 
complicity  in  the  assassination  of  Gustavus  III 
might  be  revealed. 

Twice — 1794    and    1800 — Sweden    joined    the 


Gustavus  IV  321 

League  of  Armed  Neutrality  of  the  North,  whose 
ships  jointly  patrolled  the  seas  to  protect  their 
merchantmen  against  being  searched  by  the  British. 
Friendship  sprang  up  again  after  so  many  fratri- 
cidal wars.  "Scandinavia  reunited"  became  the 
watchword  of  the  day.  In  1801  Nelson,  after  the 
battle  of  Copenhagen,  was  proceeding  to  Karl- 
skrona,  which  was  only  saved  by  the  timely 
assassination  of  the  Tsar.  The  execution  of 
the  Due  d'Enghien,  who  was  seized  in  Baden, 
brought  the  King's  anger  against  Napoleon  to  a 
head;  he  saw  in  him  the  "Beast"  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse whom  he  was  destined  by  God  to  slay. 
Le  Moniteur  in  Paris  printed  an  article  on  Gusta- 
vus IV,  that  weakling  who  "had  inherited  nothing 
from  Charles  XII  but  his  folly  and  his  boots," 
and  Gustavus  immediately  handed  his  passports 
to  the  Emperor's  representative  in  Stockholm, 
since  after  the  "insolent  observations  of  Monsieur 
Bonaparte  "  in  his  journal  he  would  have  no  further 
intercourse  with  him.  Gustavus  joined  the  third 
coalition  against  Napoleon,  and  took  the  command 
of  13,000  Swedish  troops  in  Pomerania,  where  he 
remained  inactive  owing  to  a  quarrel  with  the 
King  of  Prussia.  Meanwhile,  after  Austerlitz, 
the  coalition  came  to  an  end.  Again  in  1806  he 
remained  inactive  while  Napoleon  crushed  Prussia; 
the  French  seized  Pomerania,  1807,  and  though 
beaten  back  at  first  with  loss  from  the  siege  of 
Stralsund,  took  it  later  in  the  year.  The  Swedish 
troops  retired  to  Rugen,  from  which  they  were 


2,22  The  Story  of  Sweden 

allowed  to  sail  for  Sweden  with  all  their  armaments 
intact.  According  to  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  Sweden 
was  called  upon  by  France  and  Russia  to  close 
her  ports  to  England  and  join  the  Continental 
System.  On  February  21,  1808,  Russian  troops 
invaded  Finland  without  any  declaration  of  war. 
The  regular  Swedish  troops  tamely  retired  north 
to  Uleaborg,  and  the  impregnable  Sveaborg  with 
2,000  guns  and  immense  stores,  guarded  by  6,ooo 
men,  surrendered  to  a  force  of  10,000  men  with  46 
guns.  Cronstedt,  its  commandant,  was  one  of  the 
Finnish  traitors  who  thought  Finland  would  prosper 
under  Russia.  Meanwhile  all  the  Swedish  troops 
were  stationed  in  Scania  and  on  the  Norwegian 
border  to  ward  off  Danish  attacks.  Denmark 
had  declared  war  on  Sweden  at  the  instigation  of 
France  and  Russia,  and  in  the  hope  of  acquiring 
a  large  part  of  Southern  Sweden.  Sir  John 
Moore,  with  10,000  British  troops,  landed  at 
Gothenburg,  but  Gustavus  wasted  the  time 
in  senseless  quarrels  with  him  and  even  placed 
him  under  arrest.  After  two  months  of  this 
Moore  sailed  for  England  in  disgust.  No  succour 
was  sent  to  Finland  until  too  late,  and  then  in 
driblets.  After  retreating  for  two  months  in 
deep  snow  and  bitter  cold  the  starving  and  ill- 
clad  Finnish  army  took  the  offensive  under 
Adlercreutz.  For  about  six  months  the  heroic 
army  of  Finland  held  its  own  against  a  fourfold 
and  fivefold  number  of  Russian  troops,  and  won 
several  hard-fought  victories.     In  spite  of  every 


The  Loss  of  Finland  323 

discouragement  these  devoted  men  thrust  back 
the  Imperial  eagles  with  superhuman  bravery 
and  tenacity.  Leaders  worthy  of  such  men  arose 
among  them,  such  as  Dobeln  and  Sandels,  whose 
bare  presence  was  equal  to  whole  regiments.  The 
Swedish-Finnish  poet,  Johan  Ludvig  Runeberg, 
has  sung  this  epic  struggle  in  his  "Fanrik  Stals 
Sagner. "  But  the  reinforcements  from  Sweden 
were  insufficient,  and  arrived  in  a  planless  and 
haphazard  way.  The  Finnish  forces  dwindled 
more  and  more  from  wounds  and  sickness.  After 
their  defeat  in  the  fourteen  hours'  battle  of  Oravais 
they  acted  on  the  defensive  and  finally  abandoned 
the  hopeless  struggle  and,  by  the  Convention  of 
Olkijoki,  November  19,  1808,  evacuated  Finland 
and  retired  behind  its  boundary,  the  River  Kemi. 
Alexander  I  had  added  Finland  to  his  dominions, 
but  his  ambitions  went  further.  By  investing 
Stockholm  from  the  north  and  the  east,  while  his 
Danish  allies  invaded  Sweden  from  the  west,  he 
wished  to  partition  Sweden  as  a  new  Poland. 
It  was  a  fateful  hour.  Then  a  number  of  officers 
in  high  command  conspired  to  dethrone  the 
obstinate  King  and  save  their  country.  Adler- 
sparre,  one  of  the  officers  in  command  of  the  army 
on  the  Norwegian  border,  made  a  secret  truce  with 
Christian  August  of  Augustenburg,  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Dano-Norwegian  army,  and 
promised  him  the  succession  to  the  Swedish  Crown. 
Whereupon  he  marched  on  Stockholm.  The 
King  had  news  of  his  march  and  made  ready  to 


324  The  Story  of  Sweden 

leave  Stockholm  and  join  the  Scanian  army.  To 
prevent  this,  which  would  have  meant  civil  war, 
Adlercreutz,  the  hero  of  the  Finnish  war,  with  six 
officers,  entered  the  King's  apartments  unan- 
nounced in  the  morning  of  March  13,  1809,  and  de- 
clared he  had  come  to  prevent  his  journey.  The 
King  drew  his  sword  and  called  for  help  but  was  im- 
mediately disarmed.  A  little  later  the  King  escaped 
through  a  secret  passage,  but  was  seized  as  he  ran 
across  the  courtyard  and  carried  back  to  his  room. 
He  was  taken  as  prisoner  to  Drottningholm,  out- 
side Stockholm.  Duke  Charles,  his  uncle,  was  pro- 
claimed Regent,  and  summoned  the  Estates.  Not 
a  drop  of  blood  was  shed  during  this  revolution. 
The  King  abdicated  on  March  29th,  hoping  that  his 
son  would  take  his  place.  But  the  Estates  thanked 
the  leaders  of  the  revolution  for  their  patriotism 
and  declared  that  Gustavus  IV  and  his  descendants 
had  forfeited  the  Crown  of  Sweden.  The  King 
and  his  family  were  then  exiled  from  the  country. 
He  called  himself  Colonel  Gustafsson,  and  died 
in  poverty  in  Switzerland  in  1837.  His  son 
called  himself  Prince  of  Vasa,  and  died  in  1877  with- 
out male  heirs. 

A  constitution  committee  drafted  a  new  Con- 
stitution in  a  fortnight.  It  was  passed  by  the 
Estates  on  June  5,  1809.  On  the  following  day 
Charles  XIII  received  the  Crown  from  them 
and  signed  the  Constitution.  Sweden  had  thereby 
become  a  limited  constitutional  monarchy  as  it 
is  to-day.     Prince  Christian  August  of  Augusten- 


The  Loss  of  Finland  325 

burg  was,  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Adlersparre, 
elected  Heir  to  the  throne. 

Russia  made  three  attacks  on  Sweden:  one 
army  entered  Sweden  by  land  via  Tornea;  Bar- 
clay de  Tolly  marched  across  the  Bothnian  Gulf, 
over  the  ice,  where  it  is  at  its  narrowest;  a  third 
army  seized  the  Aland  Islands,  and  the  Cossacks 
galloped  across  the  ice  and  plundered  near  Stock- 
holm. Barclay  de  Tolly  soon  marched  back  to 
Finland,  but  the  remains  of  the  heroic  Finnish 
army  capitulated  to  the  northern  Russian  army  at 
Kalix  and  were  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes. 
Negotiations  for  peace  were  opened  at  Frederik- 
shamn.  In  order  to  get  better  terms  the  Swedes 
secretly  landed  8,000  men  north  of  the  Russian 
army,  which  was  at  Umea,  to  intercept  its  com- 
munications, but  they  were  beaten  twice  and 
compelled  to  re-embark.  Nothing  remained  but 
to  submit  to  the  humiliating  terms  of  the  victor, 
and  on  September  17,  1809,  Sweden  signed  at 
Frederikshamn  the  hardest  peace  in  its  history. 
It  ceded  more  than  one  third  of  its  territory, 
namely,  all  Finland,  the  Aland  Islands,  the  out- 
posts of  Stockholm,  and  Vasterbotten  and  Swedish 
Lapland  as  far  as  Tornea  and  Muonio  Rivers. 
The  new  status  of  Finland  had  already  been  settled 
in  March  1809. x  Peace  was  made  with  Den- 
mark at  Jonkoping,  December  10,  1809,  on  the 
basis  of  the  status  quo  ante  helium,  and  with  France 
at  Paris,  January  6,  1810.     Pomerania  was  given 

1  See  Finland. 


326  The  Story  of  Sweden 

back  to  Sweden  on  condition  of  her  joining  the 
Continental  System  and  closing  her  ports  to 
English  ships  and  goods. 

The  new  Crown  Prince,  Charles  Augustus,  as  he 
was  called,  arrived  in  Sweden  early  in  1810,  and 
soon  became  extremely  popular  except  among  the 
Gustavian  party.  He  died  suddenly  at  a  review  of 
troops  in  Scania,  May,  1810,  and  the  false  rumour 
spread  that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  the  leaders  of 
the  Gustavians.  At  his  State  funeral  in  Stock- 
holm on  June  20,  18 10,  the  Court  Marshal,  Count 
Axel  von  Fersen,  was  stoned  in  his  carriage  by  a 
raging  mob,  dragged  out  of  it  and  battered  to 
death,  while  the  troops,  owing  to  secret  orders, 
looked  on  without  interfering. 

Adlersparre  wished  to  elect  the  brother  of  the 
late  Crown  Prince,  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg,  and 
the  King  and  his  ministers  were  won  over  to  this 
view.  Napoleon  was  informed  of  this  and  did  not 
object.  Others  wished  to  re-establish  the  Union 
of  Scandinavia  by  electing  the  King  of  Denmark. 
One  of  the  Swedish  couriers  in  Paris  was  Lieutenant 
Baron  Otto  Morner.  Like  many  of  his  fellow- 
soldiers,  he  thought  that  a  French  general  on  the 
throne  might  recover  the  prestige  of  Sweden 
and  retake  Finland.  Marshal  Bernadotte,  Prince 
of  Ponte  Corvo,  was  popular  in  Sweden  for  his 
generous  treatment  of  Swedish  prisoners.  On  his 
own  personal  initiative  Morner  offered  the  Swed- 
ish Crown  to  Bernadotte,  who  ridiculed  the  offer, 
but  told  him  he  would  accept  if  he  were  elected. 


BERNADOTTE    (CHARLES  JOHN) 


The  Loss  of  Finland  $27 

Morner  hurried  back  to  Sweden  to  work  for 
his  election.  He  was  placed  under  arrest  by  the 
Swedish  Government,  whose  candidate  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Estates  at  Orebro  was  still  the  Duke 
of  Augustenburg.  But  admiration  for  Bernadotte 
and  a  belief  that  Napoleon  favoured  his  candidature 
and  would  assist  in  recovering  Finland  turned  all 
heads.  The  Government  turned  right-about,  and 
on  its  proposal  Bernadotte  was  elected  Crown 
Prince  of  Sweden  unanimously  by  all  four  Estates, 
August  21,  1810. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

BERNADOTTE   AND    HIS    SUCCESSORS — THE    UNION 
WITH  NORWAY  AND  ITS   DISSOLUTION 

Jean  Bernadotte  was  born  at  Pau,  1763.  He 
rose  from  a  simple  soldier  through  all  grades  to 
be  Marshal  of  France  and  Prince  of  Ponte  Corvo. 
He  and  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Napoleon's  brother, 
were  married  to  sisters.  Yet  he  had  often  dared 
to  disagree  with  Napoleon  who  suspected  him  to 
harbour  secret  plans  against  himself.  He  took 
the  name  Karl  Johan  (Charles  John)  and  arrived 
in  his  new  kingdom  in  the  autumn,  18 10.  Equally 
brilliant  as  a  statesman  and  soldier,  he  at  once 
assumed  control  of  government  and  especially  of 
foreign  affairs.  Though  he  firmly  intended  not 
to  be  the  vassal  of  Napoleon,  yet  he  was  compelled 
to  declare  war  against  England  at  the  dictation  of 
the  Emperor,  because  Sweden  continued  to  im- 
port British  goods  in  spite  of  the  Continental 
System.  The  British  Government  was  secretly 
informed  that  the  war  was  not  seriously  meant. 
Not  a  shot  was  fired  and  smuggling  flourished. 
As  Napoleon  continued  to  humiliate  Sweden, 
Bernadotte  adopted  a  new  policy.     He  gave  up 

328 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    329 

the  fond  hopes  of  the  Swedes  to  reconquer  Fin- 
land with  the  help  of  Napoleon.  He  saw  that 
Sweden  could  not  hold  Finland  in  the  long  run 
against  the  might  of  Russia.  Norway  would  be 
worth  more  to  Sweden  than  Finland.  With  the 
help  of  Alexander  I,  and  the  consent  of  the  anti- 
Napoleonic  coalition,  Denmark  could  be  forced 
to  cede  Norway.  When  Swedish  Pomerania  was 
occupied  by  French  troops  in  January,  18 12, 
Bernadotte  hesitated  no  longer.  By  a  secret 
treaty  at  Petersburg,  April,  1812,  Alexander 
guaranteed  to  Sweden  the  acquisition  of  Norway 
in  return  for  the  assistance  of  thirty  thousand 
Swedish  troops  against  Napoleon  in  Germany. 
An  extraordinary  parliament  at  Orebro  granted 
all  that  Bernadotte  deemed  necessary  for  the  war. 
When  Napoleon  invaded  Russia,  he  met  Alexander 
at  Abo,  August,  1812.  They  became  lifelong 
friends.  A  Russian  army  corps  was  to  be  put 
under  Bernadotte's  command  to  conquer  Norway. 
By  a  secret  article  (family  compact)  they  bound 
themselves  to  assist  each  other  against  every 
attack.  Bernadotte  feared  the  old  Royal  Family. 
After  Napoleon's  retreat  from  Russia,  England 
also  promised  to  assist  in  the  acquisition  of  Nor- 
way on  condition  that  Bernadotte  first  assisted 
the  Allies  in  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  In  the 
spring  of  1813  Bernadotte  landed  in  Germany 
with  thirty  thousand  Swedish  troops.  During 
the  armistice  which  followed  upon  the  initial 
defeats  of  the  Allies,  he  drew  up  a  new  plan  of 


330  The  Story  of  Sweden 

campaign  at  a  conference  with  the  Tsar  and  the 
King  of  Prussia.  The  forces  of  the  Allies  were 
divided  into  three  armies.  He  took  command  of 
the  Northern  army  and  beat  off  successfully  the 
attempts  of  Oudinot,  and  of  Ney,  at  Gross-Beeren, 
and  at  Dennewitz,  to  break  through  the  ring  of 
iron  which  closed  round  Napoleon.  He  was  at 
Leipsic  October  16th,  18th,  and  19th,  and  there, 
as  elsewhere,  he  spared  the  Swedes,  sending  only 
the  artillery  into  action.  Part  of  the  Northern 
army  followed  the  Allies  to  France,  while  he 
marched  north  into  Holstein  to  force  Denmark  to 
cede  Norway.  There  was  little  resistance,  and 
Frederick  VI  soon  lost  courage.  By  the  Peace 
of  Kiel,  January  14,  18 14,  Norway  was  ceded  to 
Sweden  as  a  kingdom  in  union  with  it;  it  was  to 
pay  its  share  of  the  Danish  debt,  and  Iceland, 
the  Faroes,  and  Greenland  were  to  remain  with 
Denmark,  which  acquired  Swedish  Pomerania. 
Thereupon  Bernadotte  marched  back  to  assist 
his  allies,  but  stopped  in  Belgium  as  he  was  against 
the  restitution  of  the  Bourbons.  Yet  Sweden 
was  one  of  the  seven  signatories  with  France  of 
the  Treaty  of  Paris.  Guadeloupe,  which  England 
had  given  to  Sweden,  was  handed  back  to  France, 
England  paying  a  ransom  of  twemty-four  million 
francs  to  Sweden. 

The  Norwegians  had  been  released  from  their 
allegiance  to  Frederick  VI.  They  were  filled 
with  patriotic  pride  at  being  again  a  free  and 
independent   people,    and   refused   to   be   forced, 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    331 

unasked,  into  a  union  with  Sweden.  A  party- 
led  by  the  ablest  statesman  of  the  day,  Count 
Wedel  Jarlsberg,  was  for  union  with  Sweden,  but 
the  large  majority  were  for  restoring  the  old 
independence  of  Norway.  They  rallied  round 
their  popular  viceroy,  Prince  Christian  Frederick, 
and  refused  to  acknowledge  the  Treaty  of  Kisl. 
Christian  Frederick  assumed  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment, and  called  the  representatives  of  the  nation 
to  meet  in  a  national  assembly  at  Eidsvold,  near 
Christiania.  They  met  on  April  10,  18 14,  and 
a  Constitution  modelled  on  the  constitutions  of 
the  United  States,  France  (1791),  and  Spain 
(1812)  was  drawn  up.  This  "Fundamental  Law 
of  Norway"  was  passed  on  May  17th,  and  the 
same  day  Christian  Frederick  was  elected  King 
of  Norway.  This  declaration  of  independence 
was  attended  by  great  risks.  The  Great  Powers 
threatened  Norway  and  advised  her  to  yield,  but, 
single-handed,  she  was  determined,  though  ill- 
equipped,  to  wage  a  struggle  against  the  most 
consummate  general  of  the  time.  He  invaded 
Southern  Norway.  The  Norwegians,  fighting 
bravely,  retired  behind  Glommen.  Bernadotte, 
with  wise  moderation,  after  hostilities  had  lasted 
a  fortnight,  concluded  the  Armistice  and  Con- 
vention of  Moss.  Christian  Frederick  undertook 
to  summon  the  Storthing,  the  Parliament  of 
Norway,  and  lay  down  his  crown  in  its  hands, 
while  Bernadotte  promised  to  recognize  the  new 
Constitution   of   Norway  with   the  modifications 


332  The  Story  of  Sweden 

necessitated  by  the  union  with  Sweden,  if  such  a 
union  were  assented  to  by  the  Storthing.  The 
Storthing  met  at  Christiania,  and  on  October  loth 
Christian  Frederick  resigned  his  crown  into  its 
hands.  Negotiations  were  conducted  with  Swed- 
ish commissioners  with  regard  to  the  necessary 
alterations  in  the  Constitution;  they  gave  way 
on  every  point.  On  the  eve  of  the  expiration  of 
the  armistice  the  Storthing  assented  to  the  union 
with  Sweden,  almost  unanimously.  The  amended 
Constitution  was  finally  passed  on  November 
4th,  on  which  day  the  Storthing  elected  Charles 
XIII  King  of  Norway.  Norway  was  to  be  "a 
free,  independent,  and  indivisible  kingdom,  united 
with  Sweden  under  one  king."  Foreign  affairs 
were  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  King  and  a  joint 
Swedish-Norwegian  Council.  Three  Norwegian 
ministers  were  to  be  in  attendance  on  the  King 
when  he  resided  in  Stockholm.  He  may  appoint 
a  viceroy  in  Norway  during  his  absence.  The 
Norwegian  army  or  navy  not  to  be  used  abroad 
without  the  consent  of  the  Storthing.  The  Stor- 
thing was  a  one-chamber  parliament  which  consti- 
tuted one  fourth  of  its  own  members  as  an  Upper 
House,  Lagthing,  which  together  with  the  Supreme 
Court  formed  a  Court  of  Impeachment.  Accord- 
ing to  paragraph  79  of  the  Constitution,  a  Bill 
passed  by  three  successive  Storthings  becomes  the 
law  of  the  land,  even  without  the  assent  of  the 
King.  That  this  suspensive  royal  veto  did  not 
apply  to  changes  in  the  Constitution  itself  was 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    333 

held  by  the  Swedes,  but  even  so  it  was  a  powerful 
weapon  of  democracy. 

The  Act  of  Union,  August,  1815,  passed  by  the 
Parliaments  of  the  two  countries,  lays  down  in 
its  preamble  that  the  Union  was  accomplished, 
not  by  force  of  arms  but  by  free  conviction. 
Norway  was  to  have  full  equality  within  the 
Union  which  resembled  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance,  though  Sweden  came  to  be  the  pre- 
dominant partner. 

Soon  it  was  found  that  Norway  claimed  full 
political  equality  with  Sweden,  and  its  democracy 
began  that  long  struggle  against  the  royal  power, 
the  chief  link  in  the  Union,  which  finally  led  to 
its  disruption.  Norway  refused  to  pay  its  share 
of  the  Danish  National  Debt  as  it  did  not  acknow- 
ledge the  Treaty  of  Kiel,  and  made  counter- 
claims for  the  restoration  of  Iceland,  Greenland, 
and  the  Faroes.  Only  under  strong  pressure 
from  Charles  XIV  John,  as  Bernadotte  called 
himself  after  his  accession  to  the  throne  in  181 8, 
did  the  Storthing  agree  to  pay  three  millions  out 
of  the  seven-million  "daler"  claimed  by  Den- 
mark. The  Storthing  abolished  the  privileges 
of  the  nobility  against  the  wishes  of  the  King. 
May  17th,  the  Norwegian  day  of  independence, 
was  celebrated  as  a  national  festival,  though  the 
King  tried  to  prevent  it.  Yet  he,  personally, 
was  extremely  popular,  while  the  appointment  of 
Swedes  to  be  viceroys  or  governors  of  Norway 
was  looked  upon  as  a  mark  of  inferiority,  and 


334  The  Story  of  Sweden 

after  1829  no  Swede  was  appointed  to  that  post. 
The  King's  idea  was  that  the  union  should  be- 
come as  close  as  the  union  of  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land, but  the  differences  between  the  two  peoples 
were  too  deep-rooted  for  them  to  grow  into  one 
people.  In  foreign  policy  the  King  was  very- 
successful.  Son  of  the  revolution  as  he  was,  he 
distrusted  Liberal  ideas  and  drew  nearer  to  Russia. 
In  1826  he  ended  a  series  of  negotiations  with 
Russia  by  a  treaty  in  Petersburg,  according  to 
which  the  districts  in  Finmark  hitherto  occupied 
in  common  by  Russians  and  Norwegians  were 
partitioned  between  the  two  countries,  and  he 
thereby  stopped  the  unceasing  advance  of  Russia 
towards  the  ice-free  Atlantic  in  that  direction. 

Sweden  made  rapid  material  progress  under 
Charles  XIV.  The  Gota  Canal,  connecting 
Stockholm  and  Gothenburg,  took  twenty  years 
and  over  twenty  million  "daler"  to  construct. 
New  industries  sprang  up  and  Sweden  became  a 
grain-exporting  country.  In  spite  of  the  great 
prosperity  of  Sweden  an  opposition,  which  num- 
bered in  its  ranks  the  most  talented  and  gifted 
men  in  the  country,  arose  against  various  reac- 
tionary measures  of  the  King.  He  never  learnt 
Swedish,  and  was  dependent  on  his  intimate 
friends  for  knowledge  of  his  subjects.  The  cen- 
sorship of  the  Press  was  unjust  and  inefficient. 
Riots  took  place  in  Stockholm  on  the  occasion  of 
the  imprisonment  of  an  editor.  The  last  meeting 
of  the  Estates  in  his  reign  (1840)  compelled  the 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    335 

King  to  adopt  various  administrative  changes 
and  reforms  and,  out  of  spite,  to  pay  out  of  his 
own  pocket  a  large  sum  used  without  warrant  on 
the  diplomatic  service.  But  when  he  died  at 
eighty-one,  in  1844,  his  people  remembered  how 
much  he  had  done  for  Sweden.  "No  one  has 
had  a  career  like  mine,"  he  exclaimed.  He,  the 
great  warrior,  was  the  first  King  of  Sweden  who 
reigned  without  war,  the  first  who  lived  to  see 
sons  and  grandsons  of  his  own,  and  he  was  older 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  at  his  death.  Esaias 
Tegner,  the  national  poet,  author  of  Frithiof's 
Saga,  Geijer,  the  historian,  Ling,  the  founder  of 
modern  gymnastics,  and  the  chemist  Berzelius, 
shed  lustre  on  Sweden  in  the  reign  of  Charles  XIV. 
One  of  the  first  acts  of  Oscar  I  (1844-59),  a 
cultured  liberal,  was  to  sanction  the  use  of  the 
Norwegian  national  flag  as  a  naval  flag,  with  the 
mark  of  the  Union  in  one  corner.  He  laid  many 
schemes  of  reform  before  the  Estates,  but  most 
of  them  were  whittled  down  or  put  off.  A  pro- 
posal to  modernize  the  antiquated  and  cumber- 
some procedure  of  the  Estates  was  defeated  by 
themselves.  Various  bonds  and  shackles  that 
bound  trade  and  industry  were  removed.  Oscar  I 
was  a  strong  adherent  of  a  united  Scandinavia 
confronting  German  aggression.  During  the  first 
Dano-German  war  Swedish  and  Norwegian  volun- 
teers flocked  under  the  Danish  standard,  and  a 
Swedish-Norwegian  army  was  stationed  in  Scania, 
while  five  thousand  men   were  sent   to  Funen. 


336  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Yet  Sweden  remained  neutral.  Oscar  I  leant 
on  the  Western  Liberal  Powers,  France  and 
England,  and  when  Russia,  in  1851,  attempted 
to  acquire  fishing  rights  for  the  Russian  Lapps 
on  the  Norwegian  coast  of  the  Varanger  Fiord, 
he  refused  to  allow  Russia  to  get  a  footing  and  a 
settlement  there.  Russia  in  return  closed  her 
border  to  the  Norwegian  Lapps.  Fortunately, 
soon  after  Russia  had  her  hands  full  with  the 
Crimean  War.  Sweden,  though  her  relations 
with  Russia  were  not  friendly,  remained  neutral, 
but  in  1855  concluded  the  November  Treaty 
with  France  and  England,  according  to  which 
these  Powers  bound  themselves  to  assist  Sweden 
and  Norway  with  all  their  forces  in  case  of  any 
encroachment  by  Russia  on  their  rights  or  their 
territories.  In  the  Treaty  of  Paris  (1856)  Russia 
undertook  not  to  fortify  the  Aland  Islands,  the 
outposts  of  Stockholm.  Industry  and  commerce 
advanced  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  Sweden  built 
her  main  railways.  It  was  a  time  of  great  material 
progress. 

Charles  XV  (1859-72)  was  a  genial  artist,  poet, 
painter,  and  musician,  extremely  popular  and 
beloved  in  both  his  countries.  While  he  did  not 
see  his  way  to  abolish  the  Norwegian  viceroyalty, 
as  the  Norwegians  and  he  himself  desired,  owing 
to  the  hostility  of  the  Swedes,  he  appointed  no 
viceroy  during  his  reign.  Proposals  for  the  re- 
vision of  the  Union  and  the  deliberations  of  Union 
committees  came  to  nothing,  as  the  Norwegians 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    337 

did  not  consider  that  they  had  the  full  equality 
which  they  demanded. 

The  greatest  achievement  of  his  reign  was  the 
reform  of  the  Estates,  carried  by  Baron  Louis 
de  Geer.  This  was  passed  by  the  Estates,  after 
a  stubborn  resistance,  in  December,  1865,  and 
promulgated  on  June  22,  1866.  Parliament  was 
to  consist  of  two  chambers.  The  First  Chamber 
elected  for  nine  years,  by  the  Communal  Councils, 
composed  of  unpaid  members  over  thirty-five 
years  old,  landowners  or  possessors  of  a  taxable 
income  of  four  thousand  kroner.  The  Second 
Chamber  was  elected  for  three  years  by  electors 
with  a  property  qualification.  In  certain  cases 
of  disagreement  the  two  chambers  were  to  vote 
together  in  common,  especially  in  questions  of 
supply. 

Charles  XV  had  personally  promised  support 
to  Denmark  in  the  war  of  1864,  but  his  ministers 
refused  to  risk  a  war  without  the  active  support 
of  one  of  the  Great  Powers.  Demonstrations  of 
sympathy  and  numerous  volunteers  was  all  the 
help  Sweden  and  Norway  could  give.  In  1872, 
on  the  death  of  Charles  XV,  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother,  Oscar  II,  a  man  of  exceptional 
culture  and  knowledge,  gifted  in  many  ways. 
One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  abolish  the  viceroyalty 
in  Norway  (1873),  which  made  him  popular  in 
that  country.  In  Sweden  the  opposition  between 
the  First  Chamber  dominated  by  the  nobles  and 
the  great  landowners,  and  the  Second  Chamber, 


338  The  Story  of  Sweden 

dominated  by  the  Agrarian  party  {landtmanna- 
partict),  of  parsimonious  peasant  proprietors, 
hindered  many  useful  reforms  and  wrecked  various 
defence  schemes.  The  peasant  deputies  cut  down 
the  Civil  List  and  compelled  the  King  to  be 
crowned  at  his  own  expense,  and  made  military 
reform  dependent  on  the  abolition  of  land  taxes 
connected  with  military  tenure.  Only  in  1885, 
at  the  cost  of  a  reduction  of  thirty  per  cent,  in 
these  taxes,  did  they  pass  a  first  instalment  of 
army  reform.  The  next  instalment  was  in  1892, 
when  in  return  the  remaining  land  taxes  were 
abolished.  Universal  conscription,  compulsory 
service,  was  introduced  in  1901.  The  impreg- 
nable fortress  of  Boden  was  hewed  out  in  granite 
in  Norrland,  near  the  Finnish  border,  since  Fin- 
land was  no  longer  a  buffer  state.  New  forts 
were  built  to  defend  Gothenburg.  The  struggle 
between  Free  Trade  and  Protection  led  to  the 
victory  of  the  latter  in  1888,  when  duties  on  corn 
were  introduced,  and  duties  on  industrial  imports 
followed  in  1892.  The  leader  of  the  Agrarian 
party,  E.  G.  Bostrom,  was  in  power  as  Prime 
Minister  of  Sweden,  1 891-1905,  with  an  inter- 
val, 1900-2.  During  the  last  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth and  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century  Sweden  began  to  export  dairy  produce 
instead  of  corn.  The  rich  iron  ores  near  Gellivara 
and  Kiruna  in  Norrland  were  tapped  by  the 
northernmost  railway  in  the  world,  running  from 
Lulea  on  the  Bothnian  Gulf  to  the  Norwegian 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    339 

port,  Narvik,  on  the  Atlantic.  A  great  industrial 
era  has  dawned  for  Sweden  with  its  vast  water 
power.  Already  more  than  one  third  of  the  popu- 
lation lives  by  industrial  pursuits,  and  in  1909  a 
general  strike,  which  failed,  brought  untold  misery. 
Sweden  has  more  railways  and  telephones  in 
proportion  to  its  population  than  any  other 
country. 

When  the  army  reform  had  been  finally  settled 
franchise  reform  became  a  burning  question. 
In  1905  the  first  Liberal  Ministry  in  Sweden  was 
formed  by  Staaff.  His  Franchise  Bill  was  thrown 
out,  and  the  Conservative  Ministry  of  Lindman 
laid  proposals  for  proportional  representation 
in  the  election  for  both  Chambers  before  Parlia- 
ment. The  Bill  was  passed  by  the  Second  Cham- 
ber on  condition  that  the  municipal  franchise 
was  reformed  so  that  a  democratic  element  en- 
tered the  communal  councils  which  elect  the  First 
Chamber,  the  members  of  which  were  to  be  paid 
and  elected  on  a  lower  census.  The  franchise 
reform  was  finally  passed  in  1909.  A  powerful 
Labour  and  Socialist  party  has  sprung  up  under 
the  leadership  of  Branting. 

The  Liberal  party  in  Norway,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Johan  Sverdrup,  aimed  at  "concentrating 
all  power  in  the  Storthing,"  as  he  declared  on 
one  occasion.  Soon  there  came  a  test  question. 
The  Storthing  passed  three  times — 1874,  1877, 
1880 — a  Bill  that  the  members  of  the  Cabinet 
should    participate  .in    its    debates.     The    King 


340  The  Story  of  Sweden 

each  time  refused  sanction.  He  declared  that, 
as  this  was  a  change  in  the  Constitution  of  Nor- 
way, he  had  an  absolute  not  a  suspensive  veto  in 
this  matter  and  his  view  was  upheld  by  the  Fa- 
culty of  Law  of  Christiania  University  and  the 
Conservative  party.  The  Storthing  now  declared 
that  its  Bill  had  become  a  statute  of  the  realm 
without  the  King's  sanction,  being  passed  the 
third  time  with  the  necessary  majority,  on  June 
9,  1880,  and  requested  its  publication  by  the 
Government.  The  Ministry  refused  this.  The 
conflict  grew  in  violence.  During  the  election 
in  1882  the  poet  Bjornson  and  others  spoke  in 
favour  of  Norway  as  a  free  republic.  The  Liberals 
numbered  eighty-three  in  the  new  Storthing,  the 
Conservatives  thirty-one.  The  eleven  ministers 
of  the  Cabinet  of  C.  A.  Selmer  were  then  im- 
peached by  the  Storthing  before  a  Court  of  Im- 
peachment, composed  of  the  Lagting  and  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  After  a  trial  lasting  ten  months 
Selmer  and  seven  ministers  were  sentenced  to  be 
deprived  of  office,  and  three  of  them  to  be  fined, 
in  February,  1884.  Oscar  II  did  not  follow  the 
advice  of  his  entourage  to  disregard  the  sentence, 
though  he  continued  to  assert  the  unimpaired  royal 
prerogative.  Selmer  resigned,  and  after  some 
attempts  to  form  a  Conservative  Ministry  the 
King  was  compelled  to  ask  Johan  Sverdrup  to 
form  a  Cabinet.  Supreme  power  had  passed 
from  the  hands  of  an  alien  king  to  the  Storthing 
which,  to  save  appearances,  passed  a  new  resolu- 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    341 

tion,  which  he  sanctioned,  regarding  the  partici- 
pation of  ministers  in  its  debates.  Various  joint 
commissions  were  appointed  by  Norway  and 
Sweden  to  revise  the  Act  of  Union.  The  Swedes, 
who  had  entirely  monopolized  the  Department 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  offered  to  let  the  Foreign  Min- 
ister be  either  a  Swede  or  a  Norwegian;  but  the 
Norwegian  Radicals  went  further.  They  main- 
tained that  since  Norway  had  the  largest  com- 
mercial fleet  next  to  England — Germany  has 
since  taken  her  place — she  was  entitled  to  have 
a  separate  consular  service,  which  according  to 
their  Constitution  they  could  establish  with- 
out the  consent  of  Sweden.  In  February,  1905, 
Norway  broke  off  the  last  negotiations  about  a 
separate  consular  service,  and  its  new  Ministry 
deliberately  prepared  the  disruption  of  the  Union. 
The  offer  of  the  Swedish  Crown  Prince,  April, 
1905,  acting  as  Regent  during  his  father's  illness, 
was  rejected;  it  was  a  belated  attempt  to  put  the 
two  countries  on  the  same  footing.  The  Stor- 
thing resolved  to  establish  a  separate  consular 
service,  and  when  King  Oscar  refused  to  sanction 
this  his  Norwegian  ministers  resigned.  Oscar 
II  refused  to  accept  their  resignations,  being 
"unable  at  the  moment  to  form  a  Ministry"  as 
all  parties  in  Norway  stood  behind  this  demand. 
All  the  ministers  stuck  to  their  resignations,  and 
at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Storthing  on  June  7, 
1905,  it  was  unanimously  declared  that  "as  King 
Oscar  II  has  announced  that  he  is  unable  to  form 


342  The  Story  of  Sweden 

a  Government,  he  has  thereby  ceased  to  reign." 
In  this  strange  way  the  Union  of  ninety-one  years 
was  dissolved.  The  retiring  Ministry  were  retained 
at  the  head  of  affairs.  Anger  and  indigna- 
tion rose  high  in  Sweden.  The  Swedish  Parlia- 
ment, in  an  extraordinary  session,  laid  down 
certain  conditions  to  be  fulfilled  by  Norway  before 
it  would  recognize  the  dissolution.  This  resulted 
in  a  conference  at  Karlstad,  in  Sweden,  in  which 
four  members  of  each  government  took  part. 
Meanwhile  troops  stood  on  both  sides  of  the 
frontier  ready  to  cross  it.  War  hung  in  the 
balance.  After  several  hitches  the  conference 
reached  an  agreement  on  September  23rd.  A 
narrow  strip  on  both  sides  of  the  frontier,  reach- 
ing from  Skagerak  to  the  6 1st  degree  of  latitude 
was  constituted  as  a  neutral  zone  between  the 
two  countries,  within  which  no  fortifications 
must  exist  nor  any  troops  be  stationed.  Norway 
was  therefore  compelled  to  dismantle  a  line  of 
forts  stretching  from  Frederiksten  to  Kongsvinger, 
all  built  within  the  ten  years  that  preceded 
the  conference.  The  time-honoured  rights  of  the 
nomad  Lapps  to  reindeer  pasturage  on  both  sides 
of  the  frontier  were  temporarily  secured,  and  so 
was  the  right  to  export  Swedish  iron  ore  by  the 
way  of  the  Norwegian  port,  Narvik.  Disagree- 
ments arising  out  of  the  Karlstad  Treaty  were  to 
be  submitted  to  The  Hague  Arbitration  Court. 
The  treaty  was  agreed  to  by  the  Swedish  Parlia- 
ment and  approved  by  Oscar  II  on  October  26, 


Union  with  Norway  Dissolved    343 

1905.  Since  then  the  two  peoples  have  been 
gradually  drawing  together,  and  in  case  of  Russian 
aggression  they  will  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder. 

Sweden  acceded  to  the  Baltic  and  North  Sea 
Convention,  guaranteeing  the  possessions  of  the 
contracting  Powers  on  the  coasts  of  these  seas, 
in  1908.  She  is  at  present  engaged  in  strengthen- 
ing her  defences,  impelled  thereto  with  the  fate 
of  Finland  before  her  eyes.  On  the  death  of 
Oscar  II  in  1907,  he  was  succeeded  by  Gustavus 
V,  who  had  made  a  personal  appeal  to  his  people 
to  make  sacrifices  for  their  Army  and  Navy. 

The  Liberal  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Staaff  appointed  a 
Commission  of  Inquiry  on  National  Defence. 
The  alarmist  Russophobe  pamphlets  of  the  famous 
traveller,  Sven  Hedin,  were  one  of  the  signs  of 
growing  discontent  with  this  shelving  of  the 
question.  A  procession  of  thirty  thousand  peas- 
ants marched  to  the  Royal  Palace  in  Stockholm 
to  demand  a  decision.  Gustavus  V  in  a  speech 
acceded  to  their  demands.  The  Staaff  Cabinet, 
not  having  been  consulted,  resigned.  A  non- 
party Ministry  with  Conservative  leanings  took 
its  place  with  the  solution  of  the  defence  question 
as  its  sole  program.  At  the  elections  held  sub- 
sequently the  Liberal  party  lost  many  seats, 
chiefly  to  the  Conservatives.  The  new  Ministry 
remained  in  power,  supported  not  only  by  the 
Conservatives  but  by  many  Liberals  for  patriotic 
reasons.  The  action  of  the  King  had  thus  been 
vindicated  by  the  course  of  events. 


344  The  Story  of  Sweden 

Recently,  Gustavus  V  took  the  initiative  to 
a  conference  of  the  three  Scandinavian  Kings, 
accompanied  by  their  Foreign  Ministers  at  Malmo, 
in  Sweden.  The  old  idea  of  a  United  Scandinavia 
stands  out  stronger  than  ever  in  the  hour  of  danger. 


PART  IV 

FINLAND 


345 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

FINLAND    AFTER    ITS    SEPARATION    FROM    SWEDEN 
(1809-I914) 

The  invasion  of  Finland  by  a  Russian  army  and 
the  heroic  defence  of  the  Finnish  army  have 
been  related. * 

All  armed  resistance  was  at  an  end,  but  Fin- 
land had  not  been  ceded  to  Russia  when  certain 
representatives  of  its  four  Estates  were  received 
in  Petersburg  by  the  Tsar.  At  their  sugges- 
tion he  summoned  the  Finnish  Diet  to  meet  at 
Borga,  March,  1809.  On  March  15th  Alexander  I 
issued  at  Borga  an  Act  of  Assurance  to  the  people 
of  Finland.  "Providence  having  placed  Us  in 
possession  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Finland  We 
hereby  confirm  and  ratify  the  religion  and  funda- 
mental laws,  rights  and  privileges  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, according  to  their  Constitution,  and  promise 
to  maintain  them  firm  and  unchanged  in  full 
force."  He  reiterated  this  promise  in  the  speech 
with  which  he  opened  the  Diet,  and  when  the 
Estates  took  the  oath  of  homage  to  him  as  Grand 
Duke  of  Finland   in   the   Cathedral   the  Act   of 

1  See  Sweden. 

347 


348  The  Story  of  Finland 

Assurance  was  read  out  and  solemnly  handed  to 
the  nobles.  It  was  also  read  out  in  every  church 
in  Finland.  His  popularity  was  still  more  in- 
creased by  the  speech  with  which  he  closed  the 
Diet  in  July,  1809.  "I  have  kept  watch  and 
ward  over  the  independence  of  your  opinions. 
This  brave  and  loyal  people  will  be  grateful  to 
Providence,  which  has  brought  them  to  their 
present  status,  placed  from  this  time  forward  in 
the  rank  of  nations  {place  desormais  au  rang  des 
nations)  under  the  sway  of  its  own  laws."  The 
doubts  thrown  by  Panslavist  writers  on  the  inten- 
tions of  Alexander  I  are  dispelled  by  the  instruc- 
tions which  he  gave  to  the  first  Governor  of 
Finland.  "It  has  been  my  aim  to  give  the  people 
of  Finland  a  political  existence  so  that  they  shall 
regard  themselves,  not  as  subject  to  Russia,  but 
attached  to  her  by  their  own  manifest  interests." 
After  the  cession  of  Finland  by  the  Treaty 
of  Frederikshamn,  September,  1809,  the  Govern- 
ment of  Finland  was  organized  on  the  basis  of 
the  two  constitutions  given  by  Gustavus  III  in 
1772  and  1789.  The  province  of  Viborg,  which 
had  been  part  of  Russia  since  1721,  was  reunited 
to  Finland  (181 1).  A  Council  of  State  was  estab- 
lished, one  half  of  whose  members  formed  a 
Supreme  Court.  In  18 16  its  name  was  changed 
to  "Imperial  Senate  of  Finland"  and  the  senators 
were  appointed  by  the  Tsar.  The  Governor- 
General  presided  at  their  meetings.  A  Secretary 
for  Finland  in  Petersburg  formed  the  link  between 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  349 

the  Tsar  as  Grand  Duke  of  Finland  and  the  Diet. 
The  Senate  prepared  all  Bills  to  be  laid  before 
the  Diet,  though  they  were  only  submitted  on 
the  initiative  of  the  Tsar.  Constitutional  re- 
forms required  the  consent  of  all  four  Estates, 
all  other  Bills  only  the  assent  of  three  Estates. 
The  Diet  was  not  convoked  during  the  reigns  of 
Alexander  I  and  Nicholas  I,  but  Alexander  II 
opened  it  in  person  (1863).  Three  years  before, 
in  i860,  he  had  granted  Finland  a  separate  coin- 
age. In  his  speech  from  the  throne  he  reiterated 
the  assurances  of  Alexander  I  as  to  the  constitu- 
tional rights  of  Finland  and  made  use  of  the  terms 
"state"  and  "nation."  A  commission  was  ap- 
pointed to  codify  the  statutes  of  the  Finnish 
Constitution.  The  Diet  was  to  assemble  every 
five  years.  This  Diet  met  at  Helsingfors,  to 
which  the  seat  of  Government  had  been  moved 
from  Abo  in  1821.  The  University  of  Finland 
was  moved  from  Abo  to  Helsingfors  in  1827. 

In  1877  the  Russian  War  Minister  desired  to 
extend  to  Finland  the  system  of  general  conscrip- 
tion introduced  in  the  Empire.  A  Bill  to  that 
effect  was  laid  before  the  Diet  which  made  certain 
changes  in  it;  universal  service  was  accepted  on 
condition  that  the  Finnish  troops  were  only  bound 
to  serve  in  Finnish  regiments  under  Finnish  offi- 
cers, and  only  bound  to  defend  the  throne  and 
their  country,  i.  e.,  Finland.  The  Diet  wished  to 
avoid  the  Russiamzation  of  the  Finnish  army, 
but  the  Russian  War  Minister  maintained  that 


55°  The  Story  of  Finland 

Finlanders  were  bound  to  defend  the  whole 
Empire,  not  only  Finland.  The  Finnish  guards 
fought  with  great  valour  in  the  Russo-Turkish 
War  in  1878. 

For  years  there  was  a  bitter  struggle  between 
the  Fennomans,  who  demanded  equality  for  Fin- 
nish side  by  side  with  Swedish,  and  the  Sveco- 
mans  who  upheld  the  predominance  of  Swedish. 
The  Tsar  enacted  that  the  prevailing  language  of 
each  commune  should  be  its  official  language,  and 
soon  the  two  languages  were  on  an  equal  footing, 
but  the  Svecomans  declared  that  the  Fennomans 
had  called  for  assistance  from  Russia  in  a  wholly 
internal  matter  and  thus  sown  the  seeds  of  future 
interference. 

The  Panslavists  worked  for  the  political  and 
economic  solidarity  of  Finland  and  Russia.  In 
1890  two  commissions  were  appointed  in  Peters- 
burg to  bring  Finnish  coinage,  customs,  and 
postage  into  greater  conformity  with  that  of  the 
Empire.  Separate  Finnish  postage  was  abolished 
in  1899. 

Greater  changes  were  contemplated.  In  July, 
1898,  an  extraordinary  session  of  the  Diet  was 
called  to  meet  on  January  19,  1899;  on  August 
24th  the  Tsar  issued  his  Peace  Manifesto,  and 
six  days  later,  August  30th,  he  appointed  Bobri- 
koff  Governor-General  of  Finland.  This  was  a 
blow  in  the  face  of  the  "right  and  justice"  in- 
voked by  the  Tsar  in  his  Peace  Manifesto,  for 
Bobrikoff  was  notorious  for  his  terroristic  rule  of 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  351 

the  Baltic  provinces.  On  January  19th  he  laid 
a  Bill  before  the  Diet  to  bring  the  Finnish  army 
into  conformity  with  that  of  the  Empire.  The 
Finnish  army  was  to  be  four  times  larger  and  to 
be  Russianized  and  incorporated  in  the  Russian 
army.  Bobrikoff  told  the  Diet  the  Bill  must 
be  passed.  This  was  a  breach  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  motives  of  the  Bill  were  drafted  by  the 
War  Minister,  Kuropatkin,  and  by  a  commission 
presided  over  by  Pobjedonoszev,  the  leader  of 
Russian  Panslavism.  The  Bill  was  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Imperial  Council  "as  a  matter  of 
concern  to  the  whole  Empire  of  which  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Finland  is  an  inseparable  part."  The 
Diet  was  willing  to  contribute  its  quota  of  men 
and  money  in  proportion  to  other  parts  of  the 
Empire,  i.  e.,  about  twenty  thousand  men  at  an 
annual  cost  of  one  million  pounds,  on  condition 
of  keeping  the  Finnish  troops  separate  from  the 
Russian  army.  But  while  the  Bill  was  being 
debated  the  Imperial  Manifesto  of  February  15, 
1899,  came  as  a  bolt  from  the  blue.  It  was  a 
coup  d'etat,  an  abrogation  of  the  Finnish  Consti- 
tution. All  Finnish  matters  of  Imperial  interest 
were  hereafter  to  be  dealt  with  by  Russian  insti- 
tutions, the  Tsar  to  decide  which  matters  were 
Imperial  or  exclusively  local  and  Finnish.  By 
ten  votes  to  ten  the  Senate  published  this  mani- 
festo under  protest.  The  Diet  declared  itself 
ready  to  double  the  number  of  Finnish  troops, 
and  stated  that  the  new  military  Bill  could  not 


352  The  Story  of  Finland 

become  law  without  the  concurring  consent  of  the 
Emperor  Grand  Duke  and  the  Estates;  it  pub- 
lished an  expose  of  Finland's  relations  to  the 
Empire  and  the  rights  of  the  Diet.  The  Tsar 
gave  an  ungracious  answer  to  their  remonstrance. 
All  strife  between  Fennomans  and  Svecomans 
now  ceased.  Like  one  man  the  people  joined  in 
a  petition  to  the  Grand  Duke.  This  was  read 
from  the  pulpit  of  every  church  in  the  country 
and  signed  in  every  parish.  On  March  13,  1899, 
five  hundred  representatives  of  the  people,  one 
from  every  parish,  assembled  in  Helsingfors  to 
take  the  petition,  signed  by  over  520,000  people, 
to  Petersburg.  In  the  depth  of  winter,  in  a 
fortnight,  these  signatures  had  been  collected, 
even  in  the  highest  North,  beyond  the  Arctic 
Circle,  by  runners  on  snowshoes.  When  the 
deputation  arrived  in  Petersburg,  the  State  Secre- 
tary for  Finland  told  them  from  the  Tsar  "to 
return  to  their  homes  at  once,  though  the  Tsar 
was  not  angry  with  them."  A  member  of  the 
deputation  declared  in  memorable  words:  "We 
are  inured  to  the  visitations  of  Nature,  but  such 
a  night  frost  as  that  of  February  15th  we  have 
never  known.  With  one  stroke  of  the  pen  the 
dearest  treasure  we  possessed  and  hoped  to  hand 
on  to  our  children  was  destroyed  that  night. 
Can  His  Majesty  afford  to  throw  away  the  loyal 
love  of  this  people,  can  he  bear  the  responsibility 
of  its  utter  ruin  before  Almighty  God  and  the 
judgment  of  history?"     It  was  all  in  vain.     The 


FIVE    FINNISH    LEADERS 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  353 

Tsar  also  refused  to  receive  a  European  deputa- 
tion of  professors  of  law  and  men  of  science  who 
wished  to  protest  against  the  coup  d'etat. 

BobrikofT  was  exasperated  at  the  tough  passive 
resistance  to  his  measures  for  the  Russification  of 
Finland,  and  decided  to  bully  and  goad  the  people 
into  rebellion.  Newspaper  after  newspaper  was 
confiscated.  The  Finnish  army  was  dissolved, 
and  Russian  troops  sent  to  protect  him  and  his 
tools. 

Russian  and  Carelian  pedlars,  who  were  agents 
and  spies  in  his  service,  wandered  round  the  coun- 
try, ostensibly  with  their  wares.  Governors  of 
provinces,  judges,  burgomasters,  and  other  offi- 
cials were  dismissed  without  pensions,  and  their 
places  were  filled  by  Russians  or  by  pro-Russian 
Finnish  adventurers  utterly  unfit  to  hold  office. 
Domiciliary  visits,  expulsions,  and  arrests,  occurred 
daily.  Leading  men  of  influence  were  first  har- 
assed and  then  exiled.  Russian  was  made  the 
official  language  for  all  correspondence.  Bribery 
was  resorted  to  on  a  large  scale.  Servants  in 
families  were  often  spies  in  the  secret  service  of 
the  police,  the  cost  of  which  was  increased  at  the 
expense  of  the  Finlanders,  against  their  own  will; 
detectives  were  about  everywhere,  listening  to 
conversations  and  sending  in  reports  on  trivial 
matters.  Russian  Cossacks  and  gendarmes  were 
imported  "to  keep  order,"  while  they  themselves 
were  the  only  danger  for  public  safety  and  often 
guilty  of  crimes  of  violence. 
23 


354  The  Story  of  Finland 

The  Senate  was  a  helpless  tool  in  Russian  hands, 
for  it  had  been  carefully  weeded  out,  and  consisted 
of  the  creatures  of  Bobrikoff.  The  Russians 
made  use  of  the  racial  antagonism  and  systemati- 
cally incited  the  Finnish  working-men  against 
their  Swedish  employers.  Daily  life  was  full  of 
fear  and  suspicion  and  insecurity.  People  spoke 
in  whispers,  and  kept  under  lock  and  key  every 
piece  of  written  paper  for  fear  of  police  thieves. 
The  most  innocent  actions  could  be  distorted  into 
anti-Russian  actions;  a  party  of  cards  might  be 
called  a  political  meeting,  a  ball  a  conspiracy. 
The  only  hope  left  was  a  revolution  in  Russia. 

On  June  16,  1904,  Eugen  Schauman  shot 
Bobrikoff  with  a  pistol  as  he  was  entering  the 
Senate  House,  and  immediately  afterwards  shot 
himself.  Schauman  was  the  son  of  an  ex-member 
of  the  Senate  and  came  of  a  distinguished  family. 
He  sacrificed  a  young  and  promising  life  for  his 
country. 

The  new  Governor,  Prince  Obolenski,  was 
conciliatory.  He  allowed  most  of  the  exiled 
patriots  to  come  back.  In  October,  1905,  the 
gigantic  general  strike  in  Russia  wrested  from  the 
Tsar  the  promise  of  a  Constitution.  Finland 
decided  to  do  likewise.  From  October  31st  to 
November  6th  a  general  strike  took  place  in 
Finland.  The  Governor-General  and  the  Senate 
resigned.  The  Svecomans  and  the  so-called  Young 
Finns — who  desired  co-operation  with  the  Swedes 
against  the  Panslavist  danger — formed  a  "consti- 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  355 

tutional"  party  and  sent  a  petition  to  the  Tsar. 
His  answer  was  the  manifesto  of  November  4, 
1905,  which  suspended  the  manifesto  of  February 
J5>  J899,  and  promised  to  develop  the  rights  of 
the  Finnish  people  on  the  basis  of  their  Funda- 
mental Laws,  reformed  and  modernized.  The 
Senate  was  reconstituted  and  composed  of  con- 
stitutionalists with  Leo  Mechelin  at  their  head. 
A  conciliatory  Governor-General,  Gerard,  was  ap- 
pointed. The  Diet  passed  a  new  Law  of  the 
Diet.  There  was  to  be  one  single  chamber  con- 
sisting of  two  hundred  members,  elected  for  three 
years.  Every  man  and  woman  over  twenty-four 
years  of  age  had  the  right  to  vote  in  the  elec- 
tions for  the  Finnish  Parliament,  and  was  eligible 
as  a  member  of  it.  Proportional  representation, 
according  to  the  d'Hondt  system,  was  to  be  intro- 
duced. This  was  the  most  democratic  Parlia- 
ment in  the  world.  The  number  of  voters  was 
increased  from  100,000  to  1,250,000,  and  twenty- 
five  women  were  elected  in  the  first  elections  to 
it  in  the  new  Parliament.  Thus  the  Finlanders 
were  the  first  nation  not  only  to  give  parliamentary 
suffrage  to  women,  but  to  give  them  seats  in 
Parliament. 

The  Tsar  had  no  time  to  spare  for  Finland. 
He  was  grappling  with  revolution  at  home,  and 
the  first  and  second  Duma  were  not  obsequious. 
As  soon  as  he  had  got  a  Duma  after  his  heart  the 
Russian  Press  began  to  attack  Finland  for  hatch- 
ing   dangerous    revolutionary    plots.     Questions 


356  The  Story  of  Finland 

were  asked  in  the  Duma  whether  Russian  author- 
ity extended  to  Finland.  Stolypin  answered, 
in  May,  1908,  that  the  autonomy  of  Finland  was 
a  spontaneous  gift  of  the  Tsar  which  could  be 
taken  back  if  misused.  Russian  interest  must 
predominate  in  Finland,  whose  relations  to  Russia 
were  wholly  determined  by  the  Treaty  of  Frede- 
rikshamn.  In  vain  Milyukoff  defended  Finland 
eloquently  against  the  reactionaries  in  the  Duma. 
On  June  2,  1908,  the  Tsar  issued  an  ordinance 
that  all  Finnish  questions  should  be  laid  directly 
before  the  Russian  Ministerial  Council,  who  were 
to  determine  which  of  them  were  Imperial  and 
discuss  them.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  Fin- 
land was  no  longer  to  report  separately  to  the 
Tsar.  This  was  an  abrogation  of  the  Finnish 
Constitution,  against  which  Senate  and  Diet 
both  protested.  When  the  speaker  referred  to  it 
in  his  opening  speech  the  Diet  was  dissolved. 

The  first   Diet   elected  by  universal   suffrage, 
in   1907,   had  eighty  Socialist  members,   who  in 

1908  were  able  to  carry  a  vote  of  no  confidence 
against  the  Senate,  the  Fennomans  not  voting. 
The  Tsar  declared  that  his  decision  was  final,  and 
all  petitions  were  in  vain.     At  the  beginning  of 

1909  a  Russo-Finnish  Commission,  composed  of 
six  Russians  and  five  Finns,  began  to  sit  in  Peters- 
burg to  investigate  which  matters  were  to  be  with- 
drawn from  the  competence  of  the  Finnish  Diet 
as  being  Imperial  matters.  The  appointment  of 
the  assistant  of  Bobrikoff,   Seyn,   as  Governor- 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  357 

General  of  Finland,  showed  a  violently  anti- 
Finnish  tendency.  In  19 10  the  storm  broke. 
On  March  27th  the  Tsar  issued  a  manifesto, 
embodying  proposals  for  regulating  laws  and 
matters  of  Imperial  importance  concerning  Fin- 
land. A  list  was  given  of  Imperial  and  not  exclu- 
sively Finnish  matters,  based  solely  on  the  report 
of  the  Russian  majority  of  the  commission,  as 
follows:  (1)  Finland's  share  of  the  Imperial  ex- 
penditure and  all  taxation  relating  thereto;  (2) 
conscription  and  all  military  matters;  (3)  the 
rights  of  Russian  subjects  in  Finland  who  are  not 
Finnish  citizens;  (4)  the  use  of  the  language  of  the 
Empire,  Russian,  in  Finland;  (5)  the  execution 
in  Finland  of  the  decisions  of  the  courts  and 
authorities  of  the  Empire;  (6)  the  principles  and 
the  limits  of  the  separate  Government  of  Finland ; 
(7)  keeping  order  in  Finland  and  the  organization 
thereof,  justice,  education,  meetings,  clubs,  soci- 
eties, press  laws  and  the  import  of  foreign  litera- 
ture, customs,  coinage,  post  office,  telegraphs, 
railways,  pilotage.  The  Russian  minister  con- 
cerned sends  the  Bill  to  the  Finnish  Senate  and 
asks  for  its  opinion,  to  be  given  within  a  certain 
time.  "Local  Bills"  only  were  to  be  sent  to  the 
Diet  ere  they  came  before  the  Duma  and  Council. 
The  Diet  was  to  send  one  representative  to  the 
Imperial  Council  and  four  to  the  Duma,  in  which 
the  Russians  in  Finland  were  to  be  represented  by 
one  member.  The  Diet  now  sent  a  petition  to 
the  Tsar  explaining  why  "a  change  in  the  Funda- 


358  The  Story  of  Finland 

mental  Laws  of  Finland  without  the  consent 
of  the  Diet  cannot  be  held  valid.  The  conflicts 
arising  from  their  enforcement  will  bring  suffer- 
ing on  us,  but  fear  of  suffering  does  not  justify 
betrayal  of  the  Constitution.  We  implore  you  to 
save  our  laws  and  our  rights,  and  keep  the  most 
law-abiding  of  your  subjects  loyal."  But  the 
Duma  passed  this  abolition  of  the  Finnish  Consti- 
tution without  change,  and  Nicholas  II  signed  it 
on  June  30,  19 10.  The  Russification  of  Finland, 
its  annihilation  as  a  separate  State,  now  pro- 
ceeded apace.  The  contribution  of  Finland  to 
the  military  expenses  of  the  Empire,  which  was 
ten  million  marks,  was  to  be  raised  to  twelve  mil- 
lion marks  in  191 1,  and  to  rise  by  one  million  marks 
annually  until  it  reached  twenty  millions  in  19 19, 
which  was  to  be  the  annual  sum  thereafter. 
Russian  residents  in  Finland,  including  soldiers, 
were  to  have  the  same  political  and  communal 
rights  as  Finlanders,  and  Finnish  officials  who 
disobeyed  this  law  were  to  be  prosecuted  before 
Russian  courts.  The  Senate  became  a  tool  of 
Russification  which  blindly  followed  the  direc- 
tions given  to  it,  without  regard  to  justice  or  law. 
All  the  nineteen  members  of  the  Viborg  High 
Court  were  sentenced  by  a  Russian  judge  to  six- 
teen months'  imprisonment  in  a  Russian  prison 
for  disobedience  to  the  law  giving  Russians  equal 
rights  with  the  Finlanders  in  Finland;  they  re- 
garded it  as  illegal,  as  it  had  not  been  passed  by 
the  Diet.     But  all  Russian  attempts  to  exasper- 


Finland  after  Separation  from  Sweden  359 

ate  the  Finlanders  and  goad  them  into  rebellion 
beat  in  vain  on  the  rock  of  passive  resistance. 
Finland  is  confident  that  she  can  hold  out  till  the 
Government  of  Russia  has  become  so  liberalized 
that  justice  is  given  her.  She  will  then  again 
become  a  contented  and  loyal  member  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  Dependent  as  Russia  is  on 
her  Baltic  seaboard  it  is  against  her  interest,  in 
the  long  run,  to  alienate  the  sympathies  of  the 
three  Scandinavian  kingdoms. 


SYNCHRONISTIC  TABLES  OF 
EVENTS 


361 


SYNCHRONISTIC  TABLES  OF  EVENTS  IN 
SWEDEN,  DENMARK,  AND  NORWAY 


SWEDEN 


About  830.     Ansgar  introduces 

Christianity. 
About  860.     Rurik  founds  the 

Russian  Empire. 
About  1008.  King  Olaf  baptized. 


1060C.  The    old    royal    dynasty 
extinct.     Civil  war. 


1157c.  Crusade  to  Finland. 
1 1 60     Saint  Eric  slain. 
1 164    Archbishop's  see  at  Upp- 
sala. 

1 1 87     Stockholm  founded. 

1222     Sverker  dynasty  extinct. 


DENMARK 

826     King  Harakl  baptized  at 
Mayence. 


1013-14     Conquest  of  England. 
1018-35     Cnut  the   Great  rules 
Denmark  and  England. 


1 104  Archbishop's  see  at  Lund. 
1 131  Cnut  Lavard  assassinated. 
n3I_57     Civil  war. 


1 168    Conquest  of  Rugen. 

12 19     Battle  of  Reval. 

1223     Valdemar  the    Victorious 

prisoner. 
1227     Battle  of  Bornhoved. 


1248     Church     council    at 
Skeninge. 

363 


364      Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events 


SWEDEN 

1249  Second  crusade  to  Finland. 

1250  Accession  of  the  Folkung 

dynasty. 
1256     Death  of  Earl  Birger. 

1293     Third  crusade  to  Finland. 

1306  Torgils  Knutsson,  Regent 
1290-1306,  executed. 

1306     The  Hatuna  surprise. 

13 1 7     The  Nykoping  banquet. 

1323  Peace  of  Noteborg.  Fin- 
land Swedish. 

1332    Scania  joins  Sweden. 


Sweden's  first  general 
code  of  law.  The  Black 
Death. 

Scania  lost  to  Denmark. 

Gotland  Danish. 
1 363-7 1     Civil  war.      Albrecht 
and  Hakon. 


1350 


1360 
1361 


1389    The  battle  of  Falkoping. 
1 390-98     The  Vitalian  pirates. 

1397    Eric  crowned.     The  Kal- 

mar  Union. 
1398-1408     Gotland  held  by  the 

Teutonic  Knights. 
1410-35     King  Eric  at  war  with 

Holstein  and  the  Hansa. 

1 434-3  5  Engelbrekt  liberates 
Sweden. 

1 43  5-36  The  first  general  as- 
semblies (parliaments) 
of  Sweden. 


DENMARK 


About  1256-1300.     Struggle  be- 
tween Church  and  State. 


1326-40  Denmark  dismembered. 
1346    Estland  sold. 

1 36 1     Visby  taken. 

1386  Slesvig  a  fief  of  the  Counts 

of  Holstein. 

1387  Margaret  Regent. 

1396     Eric  of  Pomerania  king. 


1438     Eric  in  exile. 


Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events      365 


SWEDEN  DENMARK 

1443     Copenhagen  a  royal  resi- 
dence. 
1460     Christian  I  acquires   Hol- 
stein. 
1463-70     Civil  war. 
1471     Battle  of  Brunkeberg. 
1477     Uppsala      University- 
founded. 


1483     Printing  introduced. 
1495-97     War  with  Russia. 


1479     Copenhagen       University 
founded. 


1500     Battle    of    Hemmingstcd 
Ditmarsken. 


1501-12     Intermittent  war  with 

Denmark. 
1 51 7     Gustaf  Trolle  deposed. 

1520  Death  of  Sten  Sture  the 

Elder.     The  Stockholm 
Massacre. 

1 52 1  Gustavus   Vasa   liberates 

Sweden. 
1527     Vesteras  assembly. 

1533-36     Civil  war. 
1536     The  Reformation. 
1539     The  Church  Ordinance. 
1544     Hereditary  succession   of     1544     Division  of  the  Duchies, 
the  Vasa  family. 


1563-70  The  Northern  Seven 
Years'  War. 

1577  Eric  XIV  poisoned.  The 
new  Liturgy. 

1587  Sigismund,  King  of  Po- 
land. 

*593     The  Uppsala  assembly. 
1598     The  battle  of  Stangebro. 


1559     Ditmarsken  conquered. 
1576-97     Tycho  Brahc  in  Hvecn. 

1588-96    Rule  of  the  Regents. 


366      Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events 


SWEDEN 

1600  The  Sixty  Years'  War  of 
Succession  with  Poland 
begins. 

1609     The  Russian  war  begins. 

1611-13     The  Kalmar  war. 

16 1 7     Peace  of  Stolbova. 

1 62 1     War  with  Poland. 


DENMARK 


1629 

Truce  of  Altmark. 

1630 

Gustavus   lands   in    Ger 

many. 

163 1 

Battle  of  Breitenfeld. 

1632 

Battle  of  Lutzen. 

1634 

Battle  of  Nordlingen. 

1624     Christiania  founded. 
1625-29     Christian    IV    in    the 

Thirty  Years'  War. 
1626     Battle  of  Lutter  am  Bar- 

enberge. 
1629     Peace  of  Lubeck. 


1635-41  Johan  Baner  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

1641-45  Torstensson  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

1643-45     War  with  Denmark. 

1645     Peace  of  Bromsebro. 

1648     Peace  of  Westphalia. 

1654  Christina  abdicates. 

1655  War  with  Poland. 


1658     Peace  of  Roskilde. 
1660    Peace  of  Copenhagen  and 
of  Oliva. 

1 675-79      War  with    Denmark 

and  Brandenburg. 
1676     Battle  of  Lund. 

1679  Peace  of  Lund,  Nijmegen, 

St.  Germain. 

1680  Absolutism. 


1643-45    War  with  Sweden. 


1657     War      declared      against 
Sweden. 

1660    Absolutism  introduced. 

1665     The  Lex  Regia. 

1 675-79    The  Scanian  war. 


Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events      367 


1700 


SWEDEN 

The  Great  Northern  War 
begins.  Battle  of  Narva. 


1702-06     Charles  XII  in  Poland 

and  Saxony. 
1709    Battle  of  Poltava. 
1 7 1  o     Battle  of  Helsingborg. 

1 7 13  Stenbock  capitulates. 

1 714  Charles  returns  from  Tur- 

key. 

1716-18     Goertz  in  Sweden. 

1719-20  The  new  Constitution. 
Peace  with  Denmark, 
Hanover,  Prussia. 

1 72 1     Peace  of  Nystad. 

1727-38     Horn  rules  Sweden. 
1739     The  "Hats"  in  power. 
1741-43     War  with  Russia. 
1757-62     The  Pomeranian  war. 


it       1772     Coup  d'etat  by  Gustavus 
III. 

1780    Armed  neutrality. 

1788-90    War  with  Russia. 

1789     The  Act  of  Security. 
1792     Gustavus  III  assassinated. 


DENMARK 

1683     Code  of  Christian  V. 
1700    Peace  of  Travendal. 

1 701-2    Serfdom  abolished. 


1709    War  with  Sweden. 


1720  Peace  of  Frederiksborg. 

1 72 1  Slesvig     incorporated     in 

Denmark. 


1762    Tsar  Peter  III  threatens 

war. 
1769    Alliance    with    Russia 

against  Sweden. 
1770-72      Struensee      Dictator. 
His  execution. 


1773  The  Holstein  Gottorp  ex- 
change. 

1784  Coup  d'etat  of  Crown 
Prince  Frederik. 

1788  War  with  Sweden.  Free- 
dom of  the  peasants. 


368      Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events 


SWEDEN 


1805     War  with  France. 


1808  War  in  Finland. 

1809  Finland  ceded. 

1810  Bernadotte  Crown  Prince. 


DENMARK 

1794     Armed  neutrality. 

1 80 1     Battle  of  Copenhagen. 

1807     Danish  fleet  seized  by  the 
English. 

1809     Peace    with    Sweden    at 
Jonkoping. 


18 1 5     The  Act  of  Union. 


181 1     University  of  Christiania 
founded. 
1 8 14    Norway  united  to  Sweden.     18 14     Peace  of  Kiel.     Indepen- 
dence of  Norway. 

1 835-36  Consultative  Estates 
meet. 

1842  Hiort  Lorenzen  speaks 
Danish  in  the  Slesvig 
Estates. 

1848-49    The  Free  Constitution. 

1849-50  The  Slesvig-Holstein 
war. 

1852  Succession  Treaty  of  Lon- 
don. 

1864  War  with  Germany  and 
Austria.  Slesvig  and 
Holstein  ceded  by  the 
Peace  of  Vienna. 

1866     Revision  of  the  Constitu- 
tion.    Paragraph    5    in 
the  Treaty  of  Prague. 
1874     The  Constitution  of  Ice- 
land. 
1 875-94     Estrup  Premier. 
1887     Protectionism  introduced. 
1905     Separation  from  Norway. 
1909     Parliamentary  Reform. 


1855     The  November  Treaty. 


1865-66    Parliamentary  Reform. 


Synchronistic  Tables  of  Events    369 


NORWAY 

872  Harald  Fair  hair,  sole  King  of  Norway. 

874-930  Settlement  of  Iceland. 

930  Iceland  a  Commonwealth. 

1000  Battle  of  Svold.     Iceland  Christianized. 

1030  Battle  of  Stiklastad.     Death  of  St.  Olaf. 

1066  Battle  of  Stamfordbridge. 

1130-84  Civil  war. 

1 152  Archbishop's  see  at  Nidaros  (Trondhjem). 

1240  Duke  Skule  slain. 

1262-64  Union  of  Iceland  and  Norway. 

1319  Union  with  Sweden.     Dynasty  extinct. 

1371  Union  with  Sweden  dissolved. 

1388  Margaret  Regent. 

1389  Eric  of  Pomerania  king. 
1449-50  Karl  Knutsson  king. 
1469  Orkney  and  Shetland  lost. 

1 506-1 1  Christian  (II)  Viceroy  of  Norway. 

J53I-32  Christian  II  returns  to  Norway. 

J537  Norway  declared  to  be  part  of  Denmark. 

NORWAY  UNDER  DANISH  RULE 


1814 

1826 

1844 

1873 
1884 

1905 
24 


May  17,  Constitution  of  Norway.     Declaration 

of  Independence. 
Delimitation  Treaty  with  Russia. 
Norway  gets  its  own  naval  flag. 
Office  of  viceroy  abolished. 
Ministry  impeached.     Sverdrup  Premier. 
Separation  from  Sweden.     Haakon  VII. 


370 


Reigns  of  Kings  and  Regents 


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Reigns  of  Kings  and  Regents 


THE  UNION 


SWEDEN 

Engelbrekt,  1435-36. 

Karl  Knutsson,  1436-40. 

Christopher,  1440-48. 

Karl  Knutsson  (King),  1448-57. 

Christian  I,  1457-64. 

Karl  Knutsson,  1467-70. 

Sten  Sture  the  Elder  (Regent), 

1470-1503. 
(Hans,  1497-1501.) 
Svante  Sture  (Regent),  1503-12. 
Sten  Sture  the  Younger  (Regent), 

1512-20. 
Christian  II,  1520-21. 

The  Vasa  Dynasty 

Gustaf  I  (Regent),  1521-23; 

(King)  1523-60. 
Erik  XIV,  1560-68. 
John  III,  1568-92. 
Sigismund,  1592-99. 
Charles  IX  (Regent),  1599-1604; 

(King)  1 604-1 1. 
Gustavus  (II)  Adolphus,  1611-32. 
Christina,  1632-54. 
Charles  X  Gustavus,  1654-60. 
Charles  XI,  1660-97. 
Charles  XII,  1697-1718. 
Frederick  I,  1720-51. 
Adolphus  Frederick,  1751-71. 
Gustavus  III,  1771-92. 
Gustavus  IV  Adolphus,  1792-1809 
Charles  XIII,  1S09-18. 


DENMARK 

Eric  of  Pomerania,  1 396-1 439. 
Christopher,  1440-48. 

The  Oldenburg  Dynasty 
Christian  I,  1448-81. 


Hans,  1481-1513. 


Christian  II,  1513-23. 


Frederick  I,  1523-33. 
Christian  III,  1534-59. 
Frederick  II,  1559-88. 


Christian  IV,  1588-1648  (Re- 
gency to  1596). 

Frederick  III,  1648-70. 
Christian  V,  1670-99. 
Frederick  IV,  1 699-1 730. 
Christian  VI,  1730-46. 
Frederick  V,  1746-66. 
Christian  VII,  1 766-1808. 


Frederick  VI,  1808-39. 


Reigns  of  Kings  and  Regents     373 


SWEDEN 

The  Bernadotte  Dynasty. 

Charles  XIV  John  (Bernadotte), 

1818-44. 
Oskar  I,  1844-59. 
Charles  XV,  1859-72. 
Okar  II,  1 872-1 907. 
Gustavus  V,  1907- 


DENMARK 


Christian  VIII,  1839-48. 
Frederick  VII,  1848-63. 
Christian  IX,  1863-1906. 
Frederick  VIII,  1906-12. 
Christian  X,  1912- 


NORWAY 
Haakon  VII,  1905- 


INDEX 


Aabo,  Abo,  peace  of,  300-301 
Abel,  King  of  Denmark,  29 
Absalon,  21-25 
Adam  of  Bremen,  6,  16,  159, 

171 
Adlercreutz,  322,  324 
Adlersparre,  323,  326 
Adolphus  Frederick,  King  of 

Sweden,  300-303 
Aelnoth,  19 
Alban.St.,  16,  17,18 
Albrecht,    King     of    Sweden, 

190-192 
Althing,  154-155.  165 
Altmark,  truce  of,  252 
Altranstadt,  peace  of,  289 
Anjala  conspiracy,  314-316 
Ansgar,  4-5,  172 
Arason,  J6n,  163 
Aros,  Arus,  Aarhus,  7,  16 
Asser,  Archbishop,  18-19 

BaneY,  271-272 

Berlin,  peace  of,  133-134 

Bernadotte    (Charles    XIV, 

John),  326-335 
Bernstorff,  A.  P.,  1 09-1 11 
Bernstorff,  J.  H.  E.,  96-97 
Birca,  5,  172 
Birger,  Earl,  180-181 
Birgitta,  St.,  187-188 
Bobrikoff,  350-354 
Borga,  district  of,  347 
Bornholm,  282 
Branting,  339 
Breitenfeld,    battle    of,    258- 

260 
Bromscbro,  peace  of,  78 


Caroline     Matilda,      100-104, 

106-108 
Catherine   II,   303,    306,    311, 

313.314.317,320 
Charles  IX,  237-241 
Charles  X,  Gustavus,  275-281 
Charles  XI,  281-286 
Charles  XII,  xi,  287-297 
Charles  XIII,  324,  326 
Charles  XIV,  John,  see  Berna- 
dotte 
Charles  XV,  336-337 
Christian  I,  44-46 
Christian  II,  47-62 
Christian  III,  63-68 
Christian  IV,  73-79 
Christian  V,  85-86 
Christian  VI,  93-95 
Christian  VII,  99-108 
Christian  VIII,  123-128 
Christian  IX,  138-147 
Christian  X,  150 
Christina,    Queen  of  Sweden, 

270,  272-273,  274-275 
Christopher  I,  29-30 
Christopher  II,  33 
Christopher  of  Bavaria,  44 
Cnut  the  Great,  9-13 
Cnut,  St.,  King  of  Denmark, 

17-18 
Cnut  Lavard,  19-20,  24 
Cnut  VI,  24-25 
Copenhagen,    23-24,    43,    44, 

46,  60,  61,  64,  74,  89,  92, 

in,  148,  280,  282 

Dalecarlia,   Dalecarlians,    198- 
200,  205,  208,  301,  315 


375 


37$ 


Index 


Danebrog,  Dannebrog,  26 

Danes,  3 

Dantzic,  250 

Denmark,  4 

Dicuil,  153 

Dybbol,  141 

Dyveke,  47-49 

Ebbesen,  Nils,  33 
Eider,  4,  26,  131 
Engclbrekt    Engelbrektsson, 

192-194 
England,  7,   17,  35,  46,   109- 

118,  293-296,  322,  336 
Eric  Emune,  20,  21 
Eric  the  Evergood,  18 
Eric  XIV,  225-233 
Eric  Klipping,  30-31 
Eric  Lamb,  20 
Eric  Mcendved,  31-32 
Eric  Plogpenning,  29 
Eric  of  Pomerania,  192-194 
Eric,    St.,    King    of    Sweden, 

177-178 
Eskil,  Archbishop,  20,  22 
Esthonia,  Esthonians,  vi,  26, 

27,  34,  227,  238,  297 
Estrup,  146 

Fehrbellin,  battle  of,  282 
Finland,    ix,    xiv,     177,     180, 
183,  185,  236,  246,  292,  297, 
300-301,     312,     314,     322- 

325,  338,  347-359 
Frcdcricia,  battle  of,  133 
Frederick  I,  Denmark,  60-63 
Frederick     I,     Sweden,     298- 

301 
Frederick  II,  69-72 
Frederick  III,  80-86 
Frederick  IV,  90-93 
Frederick  V,  95-97 
Frederick  VI,  109-12 1 
Frederick  VII,  129-137 
Frederick  VIII,  147-149 
Frederiksborg,    peace    of,    92, 

296 
Frederikshald ,  siege  of,  295 
Frederikshamn,  peace  of,  325 


George  I,  293-294 
Gocrtz,  Baron,  294-295 
Gorm,  King  of  Denmark,  6 
Gothenburg,  74,  315 
Grand,  Jens,  Archbishop,  32 
Griffenfcld,  xii,  83-87 
Gustavus  I,  Vasa,  197-224 
Gustavus  (II)  Adolphus,  242- 

269 
Gustavus  III,  305-318 
Gustavus  IV,  319-324 
Gustavus  V,  343-344 
Gyllenstierna,  johan,  284 

Hamburg,  5,  6,  26 
Harald  Bluetooth,  6-7 
Hartha-Cnut,  14 
Hedeby,  see  Slesvig 
Heligoland,  battle  of,  141 
Helsingborg,  battle  of,  292 
Helsingfors,  349,  352 
Horn,  Count  Arvid,  299 

Iceland,  x,  xi,  xv-xvi,  74,  118, 

123,  148 
Ingeborg,  Queen  of  France,  25 
Ingria,  297 
Isted,  battle  of,  133 

John  III,  232-236 
JonkOping,  peace  of,  325 
Jutland,  9,  16,  28,  33,  59,  64, 
251 

Kalmar,  Union,  vi-vii,  40-41, 

44;  war  of  Kalmar,  75 
Kardis,  peace  of,  282 
Karlstad  Conference,  342 
Kiel,  treaty  of,  118,  120,  131, 

331 

Klissow,  battle  of,  288 
Knutsson,  Karl,  193-195 

Lech,  battle  of,  262 
Leszcynski,  Stanislaus,  289, 292 
Livonia,  282,  288,  313 
Lubeck,  63,  64,  77,  220 
Lund,  11,  18,  22,  177,  (battle 

of)  283,  (peace  of)  284 
Lutzen,  battle  of,  264-266 


Index 


377 


Magdeburg,  256-257 
Magnus  Ericsson,  185-190 
Magnus  Ladulas,  181-182 
Magnusson,  Ami,  164 
Margaret,  Queen  of  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Norway,  37-43 
Mechelin  Leo,  355 

Nansen,    Hans,    Burgomaster, 

81 
Napoleon,  321,  327"330 
Narva,  battle  of,  288 
Nelson,  ix,  112-113,  321 
Nordlingen,  battle  of,  271 
Norway,  7,  8,  10,   14,  15,    47, 

60,    66-67,     Il6>     122-123, 

330-333 
November  Treaty,  the,  336 
Nystad,  peace  of,  297 

Olavus  Petri,  210-212 
Oliva,  peace  of,  281 
Olkijoki,  convention  of,  323 
Oluf,  son  of  Queen  Margaret, 

37-39 
Oscar  I,  335-336 
Oscar  II,  337-343 
Oxcnstierna,    Axel,    77,    252, 

262,  267,  270-274 

Paris,  treaty,  of,  336 
Patkul,  287,  289 
Persson,  Goran,  228 
Peter  the  Great,  288-294 
Poland,  9,  235,  241,  246,  248, 

250,  252,  276-278,  280-281, 

288-289 
Poltava,  battle  of,  291 
Pomerania,  24,  255,  274,  303, 
1    325.  329-330 
Prague,  treaty  of,  142-143 
Pruth,  peace  of,  292 

Rantzau,  71 
Reuterholm,  319-320 
Reval,  26 

Reykjavik,  165,  167 
Ribe,  Ripe,  5,  7  ,"9,  16,  45 
Roskilde,    10,    11,    16,   21,   23, 
(peace  of)  279 


Riigen,  23,  27,  118,255 
Russia,    172,    178,    221,    241, 
245,  246,  282,  288-297,  300, 
301,  312-314.  316-317,  322, 
325,  334,  336 

Saxo,  6,  25 

Scania,  9,  16,  35-36,  189 
Schumacher,  see  Griffenfeld 
Sigbrit,  47,  49-50,  59 
Sigismund  I,  236-239 
Sigurdsson,  Jon,  166-168 
Slcsvig    (and    Holstein),    xiii- 

xiv,  37,  42,  45,  46,  67,    89, 

92,  120,  123-145 
Slesvig  (or  Hedcby,  the  town), 

5,  19,  29,  132  (battle  of) 
Staaff,  339,  343 
Stenbock,  Magnus,  292 
Stockholm,   51,    181,    191-192, 

201-204,     254,     296,     308, 

317 
Stolbova,  peace  of,  246 
Stralsund,  251,  293,  321 
Struensee,  101-107 
Sture,  50,  195 
Sturluson,  Snorri,  13,  158,  171, 

175 

Svcaborg,  322 
Svcn  Forkbcard,  7 
Svcn  Estrithson,  14-17 
Svensksund,  battle  of,  317 
Sverdrup,  Johan,  339-340 

Thyri,  Queen  of  Denmark,  6 

Tilly,  253,  257-262 

Torgils    Cnutsson,    182-183, 

259 

Torstensson,  Lennart,  78,  272- 

273 
Travendal,  peace  of,  288 
Trollc,  Gustavus,  Archbishop, 

50-57,  200-203 

Ulfeld,    Korfits,     77,    80,    84, 

279 
Uppsala,  171,  173.  175 

Vadstena,  188,  193,  202 
Vacrings,  173 


378 


Index 


Valdemar  I,  the  Great,  20-24 
Valdemar   II,   the   Victorious, 

25-28 
Valdemar  Atterdag,  34-37 
Valdemar,    King    of    Sweden, 

180-183 
Varala,  peace  of,  317 
Viborg  Gauntlet,  battle  of,  317 


Vienna,  peace  of,  142,  143 
Visby,  182,  189 

Wallenstein,  76-77,  256,  262- 

266 
Warsaw,  battle  of,  277 
Wends,  vi,  2^ 
Westphalia,  peace  of,  274 


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